Sarah Cowley Ross for LockerRoom
If Imogen Ayris got her way she would pole vault every day.
“I just love pole vaulting,” says Ayris. And you can hear it in her voice.
Every time the now United Kingdom-based North Shore athlete steps on the runway she feels the rush to go higher.
Despite the desire to do more in a normal training week, Ayris jumps twice and other days are full of physical preparation to be able to pole vault – keeping her physically and mentally ready for her technical sessions.
The former gymnast turned elite pole vaulter is fresh off a world indoor championships bronze medal in Torun, Poland, and is living her childhood dream. That’s something she wants to honour.
So much so that at major championships, her playlist will transport her back to that young and free mindset with High School Musical and Hannah Montana on repeat.
“It takes me back and puts me in the best headspace,” the 25-year-old says.
It’s a headspace Ayris is relishing in, after her best indoor season. She cleared the 4.70m mark in January for the first time, followed by a personal best of 4.76m in Clermont-Ferrand, France, in February and then a shared bronze at the World Indoors in March.
The latest bronze was a scenario Ayris and her team thought might play out after seeing the bar height progressions – thinking an athlete who had no misses until the 4.80m height might make the podium.
In her second world indoor champs, Ayris shared the third position alongside Amálie Švábíková (Czechia) and Angelica Moser (Switzerland) – as predicted all three women had no misses until the bar was raised to 4.80m which they were unable to clear.
“Having nine girls over 4.70m is crazy depth and 4.80m was definitely a sticking point in the competition,” Ayris says.
Her training partner and friend, Britain’s Molly Caudery, won gold at 4.85m, with Tina Šutej of Slovakia (4.80m) taking silver.
Kiwi pole vaulting icon Eliza McCartney cleared 4.70m on her second attempt, eventually finishing sixth.
The World Indoors only allow two athletes per nation in every event, which meant one of the trio of outstanding Kiwi pole vault women missed out. McCartney won the national title with a jump of 4.81m in March, while Olivia McTaggart had jumped 4.70m indoors in Europe in February.
“It was a tricky situation because ultimately for Livvy to jump an auto standard and miss out is wild,” Ayris says.
When LockerRoom last caught up with Ayris in March last year, she was a 4.67m vaulter and had just finished ninth at world indoors in China with a jump of 4.45m.
“It’s funny because people keep asking me what I’m doing different and I just say nothing,” she says. “There’s no magic recipe – I’m just stacking session on session, week on week and year on year.”
Healthy ‘stacking’ is what Ayris, and her British coach Scott Simpson, are aiming for. At their training base in Loughborough, England, they’ve developed a programme that allows the Kiwi to keep being excited for pole vault.
Attempting 4.80m for the first time in Poland was also significant for Ayris – not only the height but the opportunity to graduate to a bigger pole for the first time.
Pole selection during a competition for vaulters is a precise science. Athletes can have a higher grip height or change the pole stiffness creating more kinetic energy to propel them over the bar.
“It’s definitely the pole that’s going to put me over 4.80,” says Ayris who jumps on carbon fibre poles.
As the Northern Hemisphere outdoor season looms and the opportunity to jump with a nice tail wind behind her in the sun, Ayris is excited to get back to work to prepare.
After a warm weather training camp in Turkey in April, she will head to Rabat for the Diamond League and build into the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in July.
It was four years ago at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham that Ayris first stood on a global podium with a brilliant bronze – Caudery won the silver and the 2024 Olympic champion Nina Kennedy took gold with 4.60m.
Ayris admits women’s pole vault in the Commonwealth is “hot” right now.
“You would quite easily jump 4.70 and come fifth and everyone will be at their best at the Commonwealth Games,” she says.
“It’s exciting and I can’t wait.”
This story was originally published at Newsroom.co.nz and is republished with permission.