KATIE James, a former pupil at Gillingham School and Sturminster Newton High School, won a gold medal in the pole vault at the Midlands Indoor Athletics Championships at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham.
Katie, 19, whose home is at Ibberton and is currently an Art & Design student at Manchester Metropolitan University, won with an equal personal best performance of 3.60 metres.ãThis was also her first competition of the season jumping on a longer and heavier pole.
Katie was introduced to pole vault by Kay Evans of the now-defunct North Dorset School Sports Partnership. After training initially with Dave Pearson (Impact Athletics and Dorset pole vault coach), Katie moved up to train at Bath University.
At Manchester she trains at Sportcity up to four times a week and is currently rated fifth in the UK in the U23 women’s pole vault.
Her next major competition will be the British Universities & Colleges (BUCS) Indoor Athletics Championships, part of the BUCS National Championships in Sheffield today (22nd February).
From: http://www.thisisblackmorevale.co.uk/Gillingham-School-pole-vaulter-Katie-James-soars/story-18201655-detail/story.html
