Athletics: Steven Lewis leaps into British record books
Pole vaulter Steven Lewis has timed his jump into form spectacularly, by breaking the British record just a week before the Olympic Games.
Stoke-born Lewis cleared 5.82m in Poland on Saturday, beating Nick Buckfield’s 14-year-old national record by two centimetres to claim victory against a field which included the current world champion Pawel Wojciechowski and 2008 Beijing Olympic gold medal winner Steve Hooker.
Lewis is a two-time Commonwealth Games medallist and has made the last two world championship finals. He failed to get past the qualifying round at the 2008 Olympics.
Last month the 26-year-old spoke of his relief at making the British team for London 2012, where he hopes to do his watching friends and family proud.
“It was such a good feeling [to make the team],” he told the BBC. “A sense of relief for all my family and friends. We're all in it together now.
“They'd been joking with me, saying 'We've spent all this money on tickets. You'd better make it'.
“But now they can all come and support me, just like they'd planned.”
Mark Jones – follow me on twitter
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