This Christmas, while others were feasting on turkey leftovers, eight of the Stevenage & North Herts Athletics Club’s pole vault squad travelled to Cardiff for an intense three-day training camp.

With the aim of using the specialist facilities, and tapping into expert knowledge, the squad based themselves at the National Indoor Athletics Centre (NIAC) at the end of December and set to work.

Over a three day period, these young athletes completed five individual technical pole vault workshops and a free running session, along with receiving input from Scott Simpson – coach to the UK’s number one female vaulter Holly Bradshaw.

A spokesman said: “With time to really explore the event in depth, some real pole epiphanies took place, and we can’t wait to see how Dylan, Michael, Oscar, Shannon, Peter, Kit, Lee and Abbie put this learning and training into practice this indoor season.”

The course was run by club coach Beth Harris, who is travelling with the British team to Australia for the Nitro Games at the end of January as lead coach for pole vault and long jump.