October 6, 2021 • 32 mins
Sue Yeomans, 66, is a British track and field athlete with multiple world championship titles in the pole vault event where she has been world champion in her age group no fewer than nine times. Sue holds 13 European championship titles and 22 national British titles. She‘s made 27 British records in the pole vault, 11 European records and she has also been placed in gold medal positions and been proclaimed world champion in both the long jump and triple jump. In August, 2018, Sue won the the world championships in Malaga in her age group, 65-69 years old, after a tough year of health issues. Just ten weeks following major surgery in 2016 Sue won the gold medal at the World Championships in Perth, Australia where she was competing in the 60-64 year old age group.
Host: Alex Rotas
This episode was first released in 2019.
For more information, links and resources plus conversations from the world of women’s sport including articles, blogs, videos and podcasts visit wispsports.com. WiSP Sports is the World’s First and Only Podcast Network for Women’s Sport with more than 60 hosts, 1500+ episodes across 50 shows and over 7 million downloads. We are ranked in the top 2% more of than 2.69 million podcasts worldwide. WiSP Sports is on all major podcast players. Follow WiSP Sports on social media @WiSPsports. Contact us at info@wispsports.com.
Host: Alex Rotas
This episode was first released in 2019.
For more information, links and resources plus conversations from the world of women’s sport including articles, blogs, videos and podcasts visit wispsports.com. WiSP Sports is the World’s First and Only Podcast Network for Women’s Sport with more than 60 hosts, 1500+ episodes across 50 shows and over 7 million downloads. We are ranked in the top 2% more of than 2.69 million podcasts worldwide. WiSP Sports is on all major podcast players. Follow WiSP Sports on social media @WiSPsports. Contact us at info@wispsports.com.
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(00:02):
WHISP Sports, the voice of Women'ssword. Welcome to Season one, Episode
three of The Boulder Woman on WHISPSports. I'm Alex Rotis and at WHISP
Sports we believe women in sport deserveequal coverage. Last year my best was
two sixty, which in the Europeanindoors was a championship record, so there
(00:26):
weren't many on the sixty year oldshave done that. This year, I've
only done two competitions, so atthe moment on two fifty two. But
the next height I've got the recordat two sixty, so the next competition
I want to just take it upto the next height and try and set
another record. You've put your courageto other test, laid all your doubs
two, your mind is queer thanbefore. Your heart is falling, wanting
(00:52):
more, your futures at third doorgive it? Are you guess? Hello
and welcome to The Boulder Woman.My guest today is Sue Yeomans, who,
at the age of sixty six,is a British track and field athlete
(01:15):
with multiple world championship titles to hername. These are primarily in the pole
vault event, where she has beenworld champion in her age group no fewer
than nine times. She holds thirteenEuropean championship titles and twenty two national British
titles. She's made twenty seven Britishrecords in the pole vault, eleven European
(01:36):
records, and she's also been placedin gold medal positions and been proclaimed world
champion in both the long jump andthe triple jump. Susann extremely popular competitor
at all the Master's Athletics meets,rarely allowing trifles such as serious health issues
to get in the way, eitherto stop her competing at elite level for
medals for herself or to add hersupport to her many friends amongst her fellow
(02:00):
master's athletes. Last August two andeighteen, she won the World Championships in
Malaga in her age group, whichis sixty five to sixty nine years old,
and that was after a tough yearof health issues. In the previous
World Championships in Perth in two thouand sixteen, where she was competing in
the sixty to sixty four year oldage group, she again took gold.
(02:21):
This last result was even more extraordinaryas it came some ten weeks after major
surgery. Sue is buried down toearth about both her achievements and her health
issues, and she's told me she'shappy to talk about both. She's one
of the warmest people you could everhope to meet. When it comes to
competition, however, this lady isnot to be trifled with. Hers is
(02:44):
quite a story, Sue, Welcometo the program, and thanks for joining
us. Hello Alex, and thanksfor that lovely introduction. I'm sure it
doesn't even go halfway to doing youproud the pell walls. I mean me
and I've watched a lot of trackand field. The pole vault looks very
(03:04):
beautiful, but also really difficult technicallyand somewhat dangerous. How on earth did
you get into it? Was itbecause you were doing it at school?
No? I didn't even know whatpole vault was. I've got my two
children, my two boys, intoathletics because I loved it. And he
was just running around the track oneday and said, what's that boy doing
over there? And I said,that's pole vault. He started vaulting,
(03:27):
and then his coach said to me, well, you're back competing now,
why don't you have a go atit? And I was I think I
was just waiting for somebody to saythat because it looks such fun. So
yeah, so that's that's how itall started, all through my getting my
son involved in it. You'd alreadygot involved in athletics. When did that
happen? Were you doing that asa youngster? I did as a youngster,
Yeah, but I've only got tocounty level. I didn't do any
(03:50):
didn't get take it any further thanthat, And then I went to work
and I got into horses, andI didn't really think much more about athletics.
So I had my two boys,and they were very good at it,
and I got them involved, andso the rest of it all just
followed on through my boys. Thankfullythat one of them saw pole vault and
saw this great event and he gothooked on it, and I then got
(04:11):
hooked on it. So and that'show we've carried on, and we now
we compete together. He's still doingit, and I'm still doing it.
He's still competing two. Yes,we compete together. We compete in our
athletics league locally, and he's justwaiting. He's hoping that I'm going to
keep going long enough that when he'she's thirty three now and that when he's
(04:31):
thirty five, which the start agefour Masters athletics, that he will be
able to go off to European orWorld championships with me and we can compete
together. So that's my goal.I've got to keep going for another couple
of years yet. Anyway, whatage group will you be when he reaches
thirty five? So I'll be sixtysix this year, I'll still be in
(04:53):
this age group, yes, butI'll be sort of coming up nearing my
seventy seventy seventy five, so hopefullyI shall keep going to them. How
often do you train each week?I do two sessions a week with my
coach and the group, and thenI do two conditioning sessions, one just
all around conditioning and then a gymsession, all sort of structured by my
(05:16):
coach. All of it's based aroundpole vault, so yes, it's all
based around that. So it's quitea structured because with pole vault you've got
to have all around condition it's sortof all over the body. It's having
a strong legs, having strong abdomino's, good shoulder muscles, and good mental
discipline as well. You've got tobe very disciplined. I think people that
(05:40):
have tried pole vat have thought haverealized that it's it's quite a mental sport.
Just sort of taking off the groundsometimes is quite hard. It's sort
of an all around sport. Sowe've got to develop and do a bit
of everything in training really and bevery disciplined. Why is it so hard
taking off the ground. You've gotto get everything right on the run up.
(06:00):
If nothing's right as you're running downthe run up and your head's not
right about what you've got to bedoing at the end of the run up,
then you're not going to take off. Sometimes there's days when you just
really don't feel quite up to themarket and you're sort of run down.
I think I just can't take offand just can't do it, and say
this mental barrier steps in. You'vejust got to overcome that. I've known
people that have just stopped doing polevaltbecause it is so hard to sometimes get
(06:24):
off the ground. You have amental blip a blockage there. You may
be physically absolutely on parle where youshould be, but mentally you just can't
get your head around actually rang downand launching yourself off the ground. So
it isn't easy but people say that'ssort of like about eighty percent mental and
they're twinty physical, But I'm notquite sure that's quite right. But there
(06:44):
is a lot of mental discipline involved. I'm afraid we polevalt. So some
people have given up because they foundit too much of a strain. But
it is a fun sport, Ihave to say it. You know,
we wouldn't be doing it if itwasn't great fun. If you don't get
the height, you fall back downto not the mattress, you fall back
down onto the run up, whichit would be very dangerous. Yes,
(07:04):
I've done that and dislocated my jaw. I did carry on in the competition
and as I was competing for county. But yes, it can happen.
If you don't sort of get everythingright at take off and going forward into
the planting the pole into the boxand going forward, you can come back
down where you've just come from downon the run up. I'm afraid,
(07:25):
and I've seen some very nasty accidentswhere it's happened. Lot can go wrong.
It's best you don't look at toomany of these things you see on
Facebook, where you've seen all thesehorrendous accidents where they have break poles,
and as you say, they comedown from quite a height. I saw
a very close friend, young ladswho I first started training with, come
down from five meters ten straight backdown into the box. Luckily he was
(07:49):
absolutely fine, very shake and verybruised. But he's backpole vaulting again.
But then that's youth. I thinkprobably at my age if that happened,
and you'd think twice, or I'dbe perhaps a little bit tentative the next
time I tried to take off.But yes, it can be habits.
It's downside, I'm afraid, accidentwise, but it's still, say,
(08:11):
such a fun sport. It's challengingin all ways. So yeah, it
just keeps you wanting more. I'mafraid. What about nutrition? Do you
do anything special with your diet?I honestly have say no, really,
I do eat a healthy diet anyway, and I don't eat lots of stodgy
foods and things. But other thanthat, no, I have the isotonic
(08:33):
drinks I make up when I'm training, and I do recovery drinks. But
apart from that, I just eathealthy, really generally all round healthy.
Nothing in particular, perhaps some athletesdo. And I think probably you should
look more at your diet as youget older, you know, eating more
healthy, because everybody should be eatingmore healthy anyway, But probably as you
get older you should just keep aneye on your diet. But say,
(08:56):
as I've always had a healthy dietand I haven't really worried too much on
that side. I've noticed that asthe age groups go up, fewer people
do pole vault. In fact,there are very few women, aren't there
in their seventies. I think there'sonly one in her eighties. Yes,
we've got some great characters that stillkeep going, and then you get such
(09:16):
great camaraderie. I think it's withthe sports. You know, it's a
challenge just keeping going as you getolder, and you know with pole vault
it's even more challenging. So Ithink we all egg each other on to
keep going. One of my closestfriends stopped and she came back down on
the run up and the stunt.I think it's time to stop now.
(09:37):
That was really sad. I'd wantto make a decision that I want to
stop when I want and not becauseI have to stop and think, well,
perhaps I'll now give up now andperhaps I'll go into coaching the sport
to youngsters and getting more people involvedin it. What age was she your
friend who stopped? She was lateseventies, so she was still going then.
(09:58):
She was a fount Actually actually knowthe young lady and the young young
lady Dorothy mclenning. She's a greatloss, but she hasn't left a sport.
She's kept going in master's athletics andstill doing everything. At eighty three
so and gave up pole vault totake up multi venting. So yes,
onwards and upwards, as they say, with her, she hasn't lost the
(10:20):
cavaraderie. No, no, Andshe's got too many friends in the sport.
That's one of the things that I'veloved with traveling all over the world.
It's not just the British athletes,the fresh British friends I've made here.
It's all the people abroad when I'vegone to all the competitions all over
the world. I've got friends everywherethat we meet up and it's all hugs,
(10:41):
kisses. We love to see eachother and we're glad to see they're
still there and they're still doing it, and they still all have the same
passions that we have and want tokeep going for as long as we possibly
can so, and yet it issad if we have to lose some of
our lovely pole vaulters. And asI get older, I've noticed that actually
because as you know, I've photographedtrack and field, and I've noticed that
(11:03):
you all support each other in pollvalls and actually you're you're happy when your
fellow competitors are clearing the bar,and that always strikes me. Yes,
most definitely. I think we'll we'llyou'll see everybody egging on, just sort
of keeping everything across. Everything,just come on, you can do it,
you know somebody you can see they'vesort of got a down hang expression.
(11:24):
They don't think they can do it. Think, And then everybody,
the whole people in the competition willget behind them and they'll clear the bar
and everybody's happy, not just aperson that's gone over it. As you
know, everybody wants everybody to dowell because it's hard as you get older,
and you know, it's a hardsport, and we want everybody to
keep going in and enjoying it.And that's that's the main thing. You
know. We've got the camaraderie inthe sport. It's saying, it's it's
(11:48):
just having a passion enjoyment of thesport. I went to a competition at
the weekend and there weren't eighty fivepole vaulters at Vault London and everybody from
young this is from you know,we had like an eight year old right
through too. I was the oldestat sixty five and everybody was encouraging everybody
and it was lovely to see everybodygetting pbs'. It's just I don't know.
(12:11):
We call it our pole valke family. Everybody loves to see everybody doing
well, getting you know, gettingbetter and better and loving the sport.
That's so nice. I've never seenone of these events that a multi age
show. Somebody from eight to sixtyfive competing in the same events. That
must be absolutely incredible. Yeah,this is one of my old friends that
(12:31):
he is still a coach and competitorand he does puts on this event every
year and when he puts on twoevents and it allows for youngsters to come
into it and it's any age andhe grades them as to what height you're
doing. So you go into poolsof different age groups like age group likes
heights, not like age groups likeheights. So you could be competing like
(12:54):
I was sixty five and there wereeleven, twelve, thirteen, twenty year
olds, fifty year old it's allin the pool together and saying everybody is
encouraging everybody to get over that barand try and do the best they possibly
can. And I think that environmentrubs off and you want to do well,
and you do do well because you'rein a nice, relax friendly environment.
(13:15):
So yes, that they're they're reallygood competition. Yeah, is there
fabulous? That's really heartwarming. SoSue, what sort of height are we
talking about that you're competing at nowthat you're clearing now the moment, I
think that last year my best wastwo sixty, which in the European Indoors
was a championship record, so thereweren't many on the sixty year olds have
(13:37):
done that. This year, I'veonly done two competitions, so at the
moment I'm two fifty two. Butthe next height, I've got the record
at two sixty, So the nextcompetition, I want to just take it
up to the next height and tryand set another record at the next comp
In a couple of weeks time,so I'm trying hard. Tell me a
bit if you don't mind, aboutwhat happened a couple of years ago when
(14:00):
you were in the run up toPerth and the World Championships and you had
a bit of a bit of ahealth blip. Yes, we'd planned this
wonderful trip to Australia and then outof the blue, I had a breast
screening done and it came back withabnormalities. So they followed up and they
found out I had breast cancer.Nothing that I would ever have known myself.
(14:22):
It was particular type of cancer thatyou can't feel lumps. It was
DCIS and so they had to goahead and do a mastectomy and it was
terrible at the time. But I'mnot sure whether it's in built in athletes
that it's just another challenge. It'slike putting another bar there. You just
think, right, once you getover the initial shock, you think,
(14:43):
right, it's got to be done. It's going to save your life to
have the operation, and you justgo ahead and do it. And I
think having the pole vault. Mycoach and his wife were fabulous. Just
after the operation, I went downto see them and they said, right
when you're going to be back,when you're gonna be starting training, and
it was and it just followed on. I thought, right, yeah,
I'm going to get back. I'mgoing to go to Australia and compete,
(15:05):
and everybody say again is rooting foryou? And sound I got to Australia
ten weeks later and set a newchampionship record. So yes, I don't
still don't know to this day howI quite did that on about two weeks
training, but it was in theresomewhere and it just luckily came out all
on the day. So and thenjust getting over that, the following year
(15:28):
I had spow screening come through andthat had abnormal one at is and then
found out I had bow cancer,so so we then had to go through
having parts messed my bow taken away. So then I had another five months
before I went off to the WorldChampionships in Ours in Denmark and then again
set another championship record. So itseems to be just like a little carrot
(15:50):
dangling there after all these tragedies,that something there's light there and I can
do it. Yes, So mypole what was brought me through to quite
down times and yeah, and saythe friends I've had from it, because
everybody kept in contact with me andsaid, you know, you've got to
come back when you're going to beback, and yet and say that just
having that that goal there just keptme going through everything that I wanted to
(16:15):
get back and I wanted to beas good as I was before. So
and it's it's, it's it's happened. So yeah, So I'm a good
advocate first screening. If anybody hasscreening dropped through their door, go and
get screened. Whatever it is,just go and get screened, because it
could save your life. Yes,I mean you wouldn't have known about either
of those if you hadn't had thescreening. No, wouldn't have known a
(16:38):
thing because the bell I didn't knowabout. And say the breast, it
was a particular type of cancer thatyou wouldn't have known. The weather,
the lumps wasn't anything, so apartfrom our wonderful screening system in the UK,
I wouldn't have known anything. Soit might have been too late and
I might not be here today.So I had some fabulous people looking after
me. And yeah, and sothe rest is history now. So I
(17:03):
wasn't upwards. Did you get anyages and from your surgeon or was your
surgeon sympathetic to the fact that youwere an elite athlete and you'd got these
goals in mind? Oh, mybreast surges and was absolutely wonderful. She's
she asked me, because she foundout she was sort of sitting back and
taking in all of what I wastelling her, what I'd done, what
I'd have achieved. Shell, when'syour next competition? And when I told
(17:26):
her, she, oh, mygoodness, that's not long. Wow,
what can we do? So shesat there and went through everything and because
doing poll ball, what they normallydo is they cut through the chest muscles.
But she said, we can't dothat because you won't be able to
do your polevaalt anymore. So shehad to really think outside the box of
what she could do for me,and she did everything, and she got
(17:48):
me in and she got me doneoperated on, and she did some special
certain new techniques that they brought in. She said, I think that would
pursuit and that's how I got backin say ten weeks, and back vaughting
again. And then again it's sortof followed through. I think she may
have had words with my bow consultantbecause he was the same, or when's
your next competition? When have wegot to get you fit by? And
(18:12):
yes, and they looked after meso well. So I have nothing but
praise for our wonderful NHS. They'vebeen absolutely superb with me. And I
still have follows and she follows meand asked what have I done? What
have I got next? What haveyou achieved since I've last seen you?
So she still wants to know howI'm doing, And funny enough, I
have an appointment with her tomorrow,so I shall let her know how I'm
(18:32):
going at the moment. So yes, so I'm very happy with my treatment.
They've been wonderful, very took onboard exactly you know what sort of
person I was and what I wantedto get back to doing, and they
were brilliant. Really sounds like youhad a holistic approach. And we hear
so many stories of people who justsee the illness or just see the particular
problem. But clearly, maybe maybethe secret is to confide in them and
(18:59):
talk to them. You did withboth of yours, and then they came
on board almost certainly they did becausethey wanted to know. Yeah, I
think sometimes you think you've got toyou go in and you're just getting You're
just a number and you're just rightnext and on to the next one.
But they didn't. They sat downand spoke to me and asked me everything
and what I wanted to be doingagain and how quickly I wanted to be
(19:19):
doing it, and they took allthat on board, which you know,
it is a health service with millionsof people they're treating, but they really
I felt like, you know,I was treated very very well and they
had taken on board who I wasand what I wanted to do. So
yes, I was very very lucky, very lucky. Well that's a great
story, Sue. What's next?What are you training for? We've got
(19:42):
the World Championships in to run inPoland in March, so hoping to go
there. Yes, So I'm hopingto do well there. I can't you
never know, but I've got unusualfriends who I compete against from around the
world have all entered, so we'llall be there together again. So yes,
(20:03):
So hopefully I don't take anything forgranted, so you never know what's
going to happen in Pole Vault.I've gone to a competition and thought of
going to win, and I knowheight it, so it's one of those
events you just do not know.Everything's got to happen right on the day.
So yeah, so I'm keeping everythingcross for what's a a new height
(20:23):
that you just said. You don'tactually get to heights you can sort of
run down take off, and youreasons that every nothing's your timing's not right,
timing's out, and you don't cleara bar and keep the bar on
there. And yes, and Iwas fit and healthy and everything was seemed
to be going all right, andI just had a really really bad day.
(20:44):
But that happens in poll of alltime. Afraid, you know,
when other people have them and theysay I've never done this before, I
say, well, it happens.I've done it in a World championship,
so you know, it's it happensat the worst of times. But you
just have to pick yourself up andbrush yourself off and go on again.
So it's you know, it's justhappens. I'm afraid. It's one of
those events. It's not like runningfrom A to B. It's yeah,
(21:07):
it's getting up and over a barand lots of things to stand away.
What sort of training are you goingto do for Poland which is in March,
isn't it? So you haven't gotlong now, No, No,
we've been having to say this isslart build up. We've had a couple
of competitions. We've got i thinkthree more over the next five or six
(21:29):
weeks that we've got before we goto Turin. So that's because because a
lot of it is is getting overthe nerves of competition. You can have
this sort of long springy bungee barto vault over, which seems quite friendly,
but as soon as you put ahard bar there is a totally different
thing. So we've got to gethard bar practice. So the only way
(21:51):
to do that really properly and getyourself mentally adjusted is to do competition.
So it's fitting in enough training,but enough hard bar working competitions, so
mentally focus yourself. So you wenton your run up and you know you're
you're ready to go and you're notgoing to bottle out at the end,
say this isn't training, this isa competition. So yes, so we've
(22:11):
we've planned out what competitions we're goingto do, and yes, we're preparing
for the next few weeks. Doyou do any cross training or is it
always specific to the pole would mostof it is specific. I do do
other things. I go and dosome swimming because I love that, get
a bit of stamina, room andswimming in the pool, cycling, rowing
(22:33):
in on machines. So I dodo a variety of things. But then
I do a lot of specifics justfor pole water as well, so it's
varied. So rest days. Ido have rest days, Yes, normally
a Friday and a Saturday on myrest days, but the rest of the
week I'm normally doing most things andI do stretch most days. I've found
(22:57):
that to keep my body going,I have a wonderful sports massa too,
So I have an hour's massage everyfortnight to make sure my body isn't as
good as shape. And I swearby that that he's kept my muscles in
that tone to sound a little lumpsomewhere, he will work on those.
So he's just checked on everything oncea fortnight to make sure my body's okay.
(23:18):
So I think that has helped mekeep going as well. So I'd
be lost without him, Sue.I'm assuming that pull vaulting and training and
swimming and having massages. That's notall you do. Have you got a
day job. I do. Istill I have a lovely job. I
work for the Health Service. I'ma school nurse assistant. I go in
(23:41):
to see reception children, so that'sfour and five year olds. So I
do their height, weight, andI test their vision and hearing, just
to make sure that they're growing well, they're eating healthy, and that their
vision and hearing's okay. Because somechildren do conversate, they could be sort
of blinding one eye but the othereyes saying and you don't always pick up
(24:02):
on it. Even parents will say, well, I never knew, you
know, they were nearly blind inthat eye, because youngsters do compensate very,
very easily, and sometimes you justthink there might be a boy they're
not listening, but they're but they'rehearing is quite poor, so we pick
up on that. And I justlove working a little four and five year
old. So I'm well pass myretirement by about three years and I'm still
(24:22):
going and I don't really want togive up yet. Really, I just
love my job. I love thepeople I work with and so and I
love working with a little one,so I should keep going with that as
well as long as I can.Pole vaulting is is it expensive? I
mean, I'm thinking about when youtravel you've got to take your own pole,
and got about club expenses. Thisis very expensive. It is this
(24:45):
expensive, and our problem is wepull there aren't many airlines that want to
fly poles now, and we're stuckwith really two three possibly airlines that will
fly poles at a price. Andthen it's getting poles from the air port
to your stadium. So what we'vehad to find normally is you have to
hire a car and take a roofwith us to get the poles to the
(25:08):
stadium. So a lot of usall sort of try and get as many
poles as we can in our bags, and then we will sort of try
and ship in a little bit togetherto try and keep down the costs.
But that's the only way we cando it. And poles are expensive to
start off with. They're just undersix hundred pound a pole, and most
I only use two poles at themoment. But if you go to my
(25:29):
coach, he has probably about aboutfive is going to be taking to Poland
with him. But yeah, soit isn't a cheap sport. Why because
he's a larger man and you canwarm up on one pole, and as
the adrenaline goes, you need astifference differ pole. So you find you're
having to move up poles, sothey're weighted according to your body weights and
(25:51):
they're different lengths, so you couldmove up a length and up a weighted
pole just to give you more pingoff the top of the pole, because
more so you get the adrenaline goingand the power going into the pole,
you're bending the pole more so theyget softer, so you then have to
move up and use a stiffer pole. You can't all just share poles.
(26:12):
No, we don't know, andwe don't like to because you know,
it's like happened to other competition onSaturday and one of our lads was using
somebody else's pole and it's snapped inwarm up, which is they're never very
good for the person who owns thatpole because they then haven't got it for
competition. So it's never a goodidea, especially if you're in a big
(26:33):
competition to lend your poles, especiallyif it's before your competition, because you
could end up somebody breaking it andyou haven't got a pole to compete on
yourself, and you've just paid outall that money and done everything to get
your poles there, and somebody elsehas broken it. So as much as
I love sharing everything and helping otherpeople out my poles, I don't normally
(26:53):
allow, although I did once andmy rival, my American I've all beat
me on my pole. So that'sanother very good reason not to probably share
your poles. But no, she'sstill a great friend, and she was
just the better lady on the dayand she beat me on my pole.
Oh that must have been annoying.What did you do in Australia because you
(27:15):
couldn't drive down there? How didyou cope with the polls there? I
have a good friend who is English. He lives in Melbourne now and he
has a rather large pole vault groupthat he coaches, and I contacted him
and he said, don't worry,I've got quite a few athletes going because
he's got some Masters athletes within hisgroup. He said, I'll take what
(27:37):
poles you need and I'll take somewith me. And I think I use.
I think I used about three orfour of his poles the gang.
Some of them. I started offokay, and then as I got better,
I needed a different stiffer poles.So I was very very lucky.
So say a good friend, poolfraternity again all of them sharing poles,
and that was very good. Butthat was his club poles. They weren't
personal poles. They were club polesthat they had, and he took them
(28:00):
and I used them so because I'mnot sure otherwise what I would have done
there. Okay, basic question,how long? How long is a pole?
They're all different. I use twelvefoot poles three meters seventy. I
have got two bigger poles that arejust think now what length they are there?
(28:21):
They are another six inches longer,but they go up. They go
up from thirteen thirteen foot seven,fourteen foot fourteen and a half fifteen ft
fifteen foot six and then if youget the top, bolter's probably on sixteen
foot poles. So they when youpick them up, they're quite scary.
They feel like holding a scaffold pole. How they run that when you see
(28:44):
somebody of la Villani's stance, hecame to watch us in the competition,
and he's so quite tiny. BecauseI had a picture taken with him with
my coach and when you look atthe size pole he's on. I don't
know how a little person like that. It's the speed to turn over his
legs and the speed and to launchedthis great himself off this huge pole.
(29:07):
It is really quite scary. Buthe's just an extraordinary athlete. So like
a lot of all the top andpole vaulting athletes are, well, that
includes you. So if you don'tmind my saying, I just wish i'd
have started. I knew about apole and who when I was a youngster,
and i'd learned as a youngster andgrown up with it and perhaps done
something when I was a youngster,because it seems that sort of starting at
(29:30):
the age forty seven was just alla little bit missing the boat. But
but anyway, it's it's, it'sit's it's given me a love and a
passion at that age. So Ican't grumble, but I just wish i'd
been younger when i'd found out aboutthe event. Gosh, you were forty
seven when because you went with yourson, and I hadn't quite clocked that
you were forty seven at that stagewhen you started. Yes, I used
(29:52):
his pole and went off training oneday with his coach and yes, and
that's what set me off at fortyseven. So and I haven't looked back
since. I've loved every moment ofit. That's fantastic. So that's twenty
years. So one final question,how much longer do you think? I
don't like to think about it,Alex, I really don't. Well,
(30:12):
Dorothy, great friend, Dorothy wasgoing in her sevencies. So if I
can keep going as long as Dorothy, although she's a very, very fit
lady, I should be very happy. But I'd like to keep going,
say for another couple of years atleast, so still I can actually compete
in with my son, and sowhen he's a master's athlete, that would
be absolutely fantastic. And I'm nowcoaching my little seven year old grandson,
(30:36):
so if I can ever do acompetition when he's old enough and the three
of us can paint, that wouldbe in better. Still. Oh,
that would be wonderful. I thinkthe oldest woman pearl vaulter in the world
at the moment has flow Miler.Isn't she American? And she's eighty one
or eighty two, So it's notimpossible keep going, keep myself health,
(31:00):
and yes, just keep going yeah, yeah, Well, we'll all be
rooting for you. Sue. Thankyou so much for talking to It's absolutely
fascinating. Really grateful that you gaveus the time, and thanks for sharing
all your story. Thanks Alex Conversationsfrom the world of Warning Sports. This
(31:23):
is sports. What a great guestSue was heartfelt thanks to her. So
that's our show for this week.I'll be back in two weeks with another
inspiring guest. In the meanwhile,be sure to subscribe to WHISP Sports on
your podcast player. The show notesfor this episode can be found on the
(31:44):
Boulder Woman showpage at whispsports dot com. And while you're on the website,
you'll find a lot more coverage ofwomen's sports, from podcasts to videos,
interviews, and blogs covering all sportsaround the world. Do follow us and
share your comments on social media atWHISP sports and at Alex Rotus. We'd
(32:06):
really love to hear from you.If you've any suggestion for guests that would
be awesome, or if you'd liketo tell us what you think of the
show, just drop us a lineto info at whissports dot com. So
until next time, thanks very muchfor listening. We know there are some
great podcasts out there, so thanksfor listening to us, and thank you
for supporting women in sport of allages and everywhere.
WHISP Sports, the voice of Women'ssword. Welcome to Season one, Episode
three of The Boulder Woman on WHISPSports. I'm Alex Rotis and at WHISP
Sports we believe women in sport deserveequal coverage. Last year my best was
two sixty, which in the Europeanindoors was a championship record, so there
(00:26):
weren't many on the sixty year oldshave done that. This year, I've
only done two competitions, so atthe moment on two fifty two. But
the next height I've got the recordat two sixty, so the next competition
I want to just take it upto the next height and try and set
another record. You've put your courageto other test, laid all your doubs
two, your mind is queer thanbefore. Your heart is falling, wanting
(00:52):
more, your futures at third doorgive it? Are you guess? Hello
and welcome to The Boulder Woman.My guest today is Sue Yeomans, who,
at the age of sixty six,is a British track and field athlete
(01:15):
with multiple world championship titles to hername. These are primarily in the pole
vault event, where she has beenworld champion in her age group no fewer
than nine times. She holds thirteenEuropean championship titles and twenty two national British
titles. She's made twenty seven Britishrecords in the pole vault, eleven European
(01:36):
records, and she's also been placedin gold medal positions and been proclaimed world
champion in both the long jump andthe triple jump. Susann extremely popular competitor
at all the Master's Athletics meets,rarely allowing trifles such as serious health issues
to get in the way, eitherto stop her competing at elite level for
medals for herself or to add hersupport to her many friends amongst her fellow
(02:00):
master's athletes. Last August two andeighteen, she won the World Championships in
Malaga in her age group, whichis sixty five to sixty nine years old,
and that was after a tough yearof health issues. In the previous
World Championships in Perth in two thouand sixteen, where she was competing in
the sixty to sixty four year oldage group, she again took gold.
(02:21):
This last result was even more extraordinaryas it came some ten weeks after major
surgery. Sue is buried down toearth about both her achievements and her health
issues, and she's told me she'shappy to talk about both. She's one
of the warmest people you could everhope to meet. When it comes to
competition, however, this lady isnot to be trifled with. Hers is
(02:44):
quite a story, Sue, Welcometo the program, and thanks for joining
us. Hello Alex, and thanksfor that lovely introduction. I'm sure it
doesn't even go halfway to doing youproud the pell walls. I mean me
and I've watched a lot of trackand field. The pole vault looks very
(03:04):
beautiful, but also really difficult technicallyand somewhat dangerous. How on earth did
you get into it? Was itbecause you were doing it at school?
No? I didn't even know whatpole vault was. I've got my two
children, my two boys, intoathletics because I loved it. And he
was just running around the track oneday and said, what's that boy doing
over there? And I said,that's pole vault. He started vaulting,
(03:27):
and then his coach said to me, well, you're back competing now,
why don't you have a go atit? And I was I think I
was just waiting for somebody to saythat because it looks such fun. So
yeah, so that's that's how itall started, all through my getting my
son involved in it. You'd alreadygot involved in athletics. When did that
happen? Were you doing that asa youngster? I did as a youngster,
Yeah, but I've only got tocounty level. I didn't do any
(03:50):
didn't get take it any further thanthat, And then I went to work
and I got into horses, andI didn't really think much more about athletics.
So I had my two boys,and they were very good at it,
and I got them involved, andso the rest of it all just
followed on through my boys. Thankfullythat one of them saw pole vault and
saw this great event and he gothooked on it, and I then got
(04:11):
hooked on it. So and that'show we've carried on, and we now
we compete together. He's still doingit, and I'm still doing it.
He's still competing two. Yes,we compete together. We compete in our
athletics league locally, and he's justwaiting. He's hoping that I'm going to
keep going long enough that when he'she's thirty three now and that when he's
(04:31):
thirty five, which the start agefour Masters athletics, that he will be
able to go off to European orWorld championships with me and we can compete
together. So that's my goal.I've got to keep going for another couple
of years yet. Anyway, whatage group will you be when he reaches
thirty five? So I'll be sixtysix this year, I'll still be in
(04:53):
this age group, yes, butI'll be sort of coming up nearing my
seventy seventy seventy five, so hopefullyI shall keep going to them. How
often do you train each week?I do two sessions a week with my
coach and the group, and thenI do two conditioning sessions, one just
all around conditioning and then a gymsession, all sort of structured by my
(05:16):
coach. All of it's based aroundpole vault, so yes, it's all
based around that. So it's quitea structured because with pole vault you've got
to have all around condition it's sortof all over the body. It's having
a strong legs, having strong abdomino's, good shoulder muscles, and good mental
discipline as well. You've got tobe very disciplined. I think people that
(05:40):
have tried pole vat have thought haverealized that it's it's quite a mental sport.
Just sort of taking off the groundsometimes is quite hard. It's sort
of an all around sport. Sowe've got to develop and do a bit
of everything in training really and bevery disciplined. Why is it so hard
taking off the ground. You've gotto get everything right on the run up.
(06:00):
If nothing's right as you're running downthe run up and your head's not
right about what you've got to bedoing at the end of the run up,
then you're not going to take off. Sometimes there's days when you just
really don't feel quite up to themarket and you're sort of run down.
I think I just can't take offand just can't do it, and say
this mental barrier steps in. You'vejust got to overcome that. I've known
people that have just stopped doing polevaltbecause it is so hard to sometimes get
(06:24):
off the ground. You have amental blip a blockage there. You may
be physically absolutely on parle where youshould be, but mentally you just can't
get your head around actually rang downand launching yourself off the ground. So
it isn't easy but people say that'ssort of like about eighty percent mental and
they're twinty physical, But I'm notquite sure that's quite right. But there
(06:44):
is a lot of mental discipline involved. I'm afraid we polevalt. So some
people have given up because they foundit too much of a strain. But
it is a fun sport, Ihave to say it. You know,
we wouldn't be doing it if itwasn't great fun. If you don't get
the height, you fall back downto not the mattress, you fall back
down onto the run up, whichit would be very dangerous. Yes,
(07:04):
I've done that and dislocated my jaw. I did carry on in the competition
and as I was competing for county. But yes, it can happen.
If you don't sort of get everythingright at take off and going forward into
the planting the pole into the boxand going forward, you can come back
down where you've just come from downon the run up. I'm afraid,
(07:25):
and I've seen some very nasty accidentswhere it's happened. Lot can go wrong.
It's best you don't look at toomany of these things you see on
Facebook, where you've seen all thesehorrendous accidents where they have break poles,
and as you say, they comedown from quite a height. I saw
a very close friend, young ladswho I first started training with, come
down from five meters ten straight backdown into the box. Luckily he was
(07:49):
absolutely fine, very shake and verybruised. But he's backpole vaulting again.
But then that's youth. I thinkprobably at my age if that happened,
and you'd think twice, or I'dbe perhaps a little bit tentative the next
time I tried to take off.But yes, it can be habits.
It's downside, I'm afraid, accidentwise, but it's still, say,
(08:11):
such a fun sport. It's challengingin all ways. So yeah, it
just keeps you wanting more. I'mafraid. What about nutrition? Do you
do anything special with your diet?I honestly have say no, really,
I do eat a healthy diet anyway, and I don't eat lots of stodgy
foods and things. But other thanthat, no, I have the isotonic
(08:33):
drinks I make up when I'm training, and I do recovery drinks. But
apart from that, I just eathealthy, really generally all round healthy.
Nothing in particular, perhaps some athletesdo. And I think probably you should
look more at your diet as youget older, you know, eating more
healthy, because everybody should be eatingmore healthy anyway, But probably as you
get older you should just keep aneye on your diet. But say,
(08:56):
as I've always had a healthy dietand I haven't really worried too much on
that side. I've noticed that asthe age groups go up, fewer people
do pole vault. In fact,there are very few women, aren't there
in their seventies. I think there'sonly one in her eighties. Yes,
we've got some great characters that stillkeep going, and then you get such
(09:16):
great camaraderie. I think it's withthe sports. You know, it's a
challenge just keeping going as you getolder, and you know with pole vault
it's even more challenging. So Ithink we all egg each other on to
keep going. One of my closestfriends stopped and she came back down on
the run up and the stunt.I think it's time to stop now.
(09:37):
That was really sad. I'd wantto make a decision that I want to
stop when I want and not becauseI have to stop and think, well,
perhaps I'll now give up now andperhaps I'll go into coaching the sport
to youngsters and getting more people involvedin it. What age was she your
friend who stopped? She was lateseventies, so she was still going then.
(09:58):
She was a fount Actually actually knowthe young lady and the young young
lady Dorothy mclenning. She's a greatloss, but she hasn't left a sport.
She's kept going in master's athletics andstill doing everything. At eighty three
so and gave up pole vault totake up multi venting. So yes,
onwards and upwards, as they say, with her, she hasn't lost the
(10:20):
cavaraderie. No, no, Andshe's got too many friends in the sport.
That's one of the things that I'veloved with traveling all over the world.
It's not just the British athletes,the fresh British friends I've made here.
It's all the people abroad when I'vegone to all the competitions all over
the world. I've got friends everywherethat we meet up and it's all hugs,
(10:41):
kisses. We love to see eachother and we're glad to see they're
still there and they're still doing it, and they still all have the same
passions that we have and want tokeep going for as long as we possibly
can so, and yet it issad if we have to lose some of
our lovely pole vaulters. And asI get older, I've noticed that actually
because as you know, I've photographedtrack and field, and I've noticed that
(11:03):
you all support each other in pollvalls and actually you're you're happy when your
fellow competitors are clearing the bar,and that always strikes me. Yes,
most definitely. I think we'll we'llyou'll see everybody egging on, just sort
of keeping everything across. Everything,just come on, you can do it,
you know somebody you can see they'vesort of got a down hang expression.
(11:24):
They don't think they can do it. Think, And then everybody,
the whole people in the competition willget behind them and they'll clear the bar
and everybody's happy, not just aperson that's gone over it. As you
know, everybody wants everybody to dowell because it's hard as you get older,
and you know, it's a hardsport, and we want everybody to
keep going in and enjoying it.And that's that's the main thing. You
know. We've got the camaraderie inthe sport. It's saying, it's it's
(11:48):
just having a passion enjoyment of thesport. I went to a competition at
the weekend and there weren't eighty fivepole vaulters at Vault London and everybody from
young this is from you know,we had like an eight year old right
through too. I was the oldestat sixty five and everybody was encouraging everybody
and it was lovely to see everybodygetting pbs'. It's just I don't know.
(12:11):
We call it our pole valke family. Everybody loves to see everybody doing
well, getting you know, gettingbetter and better and loving the sport.
That's so nice. I've never seenone of these events that a multi age
show. Somebody from eight to sixtyfive competing in the same events. That
must be absolutely incredible. Yeah,this is one of my old friends that
(12:31):
he is still a coach and competitorand he does puts on this event every
year and when he puts on twoevents and it allows for youngsters to come
into it and it's any age andhe grades them as to what height you're
doing. So you go into poolsof different age groups like age group likes
heights, not like age groups likeheights. So you could be competing like
(12:54):
I was sixty five and there wereeleven, twelve, thirteen, twenty year
olds, fifty year old it's allin the pool together and saying everybody is
encouraging everybody to get over that barand try and do the best they possibly
can. And I think that environmentrubs off and you want to do well,
and you do do well because you'rein a nice, relax friendly environment.
(13:15):
So yes, that they're they're reallygood competition. Yeah, is there
fabulous? That's really heartwarming. SoSue, what sort of height are we
talking about that you're competing at nowthat you're clearing now the moment, I
think that last year my best wastwo sixty, which in the European Indoors
was a championship record, so thereweren't many on the sixty year olds have
(13:37):
done that. This year, I'veonly done two competitions, so at the
moment I'm two fifty two. Butthe next height, I've got the record
at two sixty, So the nextcompetition, I want to just take it
up to the next height and tryand set another record at the next comp
In a couple of weeks time,so I'm trying hard. Tell me a
bit if you don't mind, aboutwhat happened a couple of years ago when
(14:00):
you were in the run up toPerth and the World Championships and you had
a bit of a bit of ahealth blip. Yes, we'd planned this
wonderful trip to Australia and then outof the blue, I had a breast
screening done and it came back withabnormalities. So they followed up and they
found out I had breast cancer.Nothing that I would ever have known myself.
(14:22):
It was particular type of cancer thatyou can't feel lumps. It was
DCIS and so they had to goahead and do a mastectomy and it was
terrible at the time. But I'mnot sure whether it's in built in athletes
that it's just another challenge. It'slike putting another bar there. You just
think, right, once you getover the initial shock, you think,
(14:43):
right, it's got to be done. It's going to save your life to
have the operation, and you justgo ahead and do it. And I
think having the pole vault. Mycoach and his wife were fabulous. Just
after the operation, I went downto see them and they said, right
when you're going to be back,when you're gonna be starting training, and
it was and it just followed on. I thought, right, yeah,
I'm going to get back. I'mgoing to go to Australia and compete,
(15:05):
and everybody say again is rooting foryou? And sound I got to Australia
ten weeks later and set a newchampionship record. So yes, I don't
still don't know to this day howI quite did that on about two weeks
training, but it was in theresomewhere and it just luckily came out all
on the day. So and thenjust getting over that, the following year
(15:28):
I had spow screening come through andthat had abnormal one at is and then
found out I had bow cancer,so so we then had to go through
having parts messed my bow taken away. So then I had another five months
before I went off to the WorldChampionships in Ours in Denmark and then again
set another championship record. So itseems to be just like a little carrot
(15:50):
dangling there after all these tragedies,that something there's light there and I can
do it. Yes, So mypole what was brought me through to quite
down times and yeah, and saythe friends I've had from it, because
everybody kept in contact with me andsaid, you know, you've got to
come back when you're going to beback, and yet and say that just
having that that goal there just keptme going through everything that I wanted to
(16:15):
get back and I wanted to beas good as I was before. So
and it's it's, it's it's happened. So yeah, So I'm a good
advocate first screening. If anybody hasscreening dropped through their door, go and
get screened. Whatever it is,just go and get screened, because it
could save your life. Yes,I mean you wouldn't have known about either
of those if you hadn't had thescreening. No, wouldn't have known a
(16:38):
thing because the bell I didn't knowabout. And say the breast, it
was a particular type of cancer thatyou wouldn't have known. The weather,
the lumps wasn't anything, so apartfrom our wonderful screening system in the UK,
I wouldn't have known anything. Soit might have been too late and
I might not be here today.So I had some fabulous people looking after
me. And yeah, and sothe rest is history now. So I
(17:03):
wasn't upwards. Did you get anyages and from your surgeon or was your
surgeon sympathetic to the fact that youwere an elite athlete and you'd got these
goals in mind? Oh, mybreast surges and was absolutely wonderful. She's
she asked me, because she foundout she was sort of sitting back and
taking in all of what I wastelling her, what I'd done, what
I'd have achieved. Shell, when'syour next competition? And when I told
(17:26):
her, she, oh, mygoodness, that's not long. Wow,
what can we do? So shesat there and went through everything and because
doing poll ball, what they normallydo is they cut through the chest muscles.
But she said, we can't dothat because you won't be able to
do your polevaalt anymore. So shehad to really think outside the box of
what she could do for me,and she did everything, and she got
(17:48):
me in and she got me doneoperated on, and she did some special
certain new techniques that they brought in. She said, I think that would
pursuit and that's how I got backin say ten weeks, and back vaughting
again. And then again it's sortof followed through. I think she may
have had words with my bow consultantbecause he was the same, or when's
your next competition? When have wegot to get you fit by? And
(18:12):
yes, and they looked after meso well. So I have nothing but
praise for our wonderful NHS. They'vebeen absolutely superb with me. And I
still have follows and she follows meand asked what have I done? What
have I got next? What haveyou achieved since I've last seen you?
So she still wants to know howI'm doing, And funny enough, I
have an appointment with her tomorrow,so I shall let her know how I'm
(18:32):
going at the moment. So yes, so I'm very happy with my treatment.
They've been wonderful, very took onboard exactly you know what sort of
person I was and what I wantedto get back to doing, and they
were brilliant. Really sounds like youhad a holistic approach. And we hear
so many stories of people who justsee the illness or just see the particular
problem. But clearly, maybe maybethe secret is to confide in them and
(18:59):
talk to them. You did withboth of yours, and then they came
on board almost certainly they did becausethey wanted to know. Yeah, I
think sometimes you think you've got toyou go in and you're just getting You're
just a number and you're just rightnext and on to the next one.
But they didn't. They sat downand spoke to me and asked me everything
and what I wanted to be doingagain and how quickly I wanted to be
(19:19):
doing it, and they took allthat on board, which you know,
it is a health service with millionsof people they're treating, but they really
I felt like, you know,I was treated very very well and they
had taken on board who I wasand what I wanted to do. So
yes, I was very very lucky, very lucky. Well that's a great
story, Sue. What's next?What are you training for? We've got
(19:42):
the World Championships in to run inPoland in March, so hoping to go
there. Yes, So I'm hopingto do well there. I can't you
never know, but I've got unusualfriends who I compete against from around the
world have all entered, so we'llall be there together again. So yes,
(20:03):
So hopefully I don't take anything forgranted, so you never know what's
going to happen in Pole Vault.I've gone to a competition and thought of
going to win, and I knowheight it, so it's one of those
events you just do not know.Everything's got to happen right on the day.
So yeah, so I'm keeping everythingcross for what's a a new height
(20:23):
that you just said. You don'tactually get to heights you can sort of
run down take off, and youreasons that every nothing's your timing's not right,
timing's out, and you don't cleara bar and keep the bar on
there. And yes, and Iwas fit and healthy and everything was seemed
to be going all right, andI just had a really really bad day.
(20:44):
But that happens in poll of alltime. Afraid, you know,
when other people have them and theysay I've never done this before, I
say, well, it happens.I've done it in a World championship,
so you know, it's it happensat the worst of times. But you
just have to pick yourself up andbrush yourself off and go on again.
So it's you know, it's justhappens. I'm afraid. It's one of
those events. It's not like runningfrom A to B. It's yeah,
(21:07):
it's getting up and over a barand lots of things to stand away.
What sort of training are you goingto do for Poland which is in March,
isn't it? So you haven't gotlong now, No, No,
we've been having to say this isslart build up. We've had a couple
of competitions. We've got i thinkthree more over the next five or six
(21:29):
weeks that we've got before we goto Turin. So that's because because a
lot of it is is getting overthe nerves of competition. You can have
this sort of long springy bungee barto vault over, which seems quite friendly,
but as soon as you put ahard bar there is a totally different
thing. So we've got to gethard bar practice. So the only way
(21:51):
to do that really properly and getyourself mentally adjusted is to do competition.
So it's fitting in enough training,but enough hard bar working competitions, so
mentally focus yourself. So you wenton your run up and you know you're
you're ready to go and you're notgoing to bottle out at the end,
say this isn't training, this isa competition. So yes, so we've
(22:11):
we've planned out what competitions we're goingto do, and yes, we're preparing
for the next few weeks. Doyou do any cross training or is it
always specific to the pole would mostof it is specific. I do do
other things. I go and dosome swimming because I love that, get
a bit of stamina, room andswimming in the pool, cycling, rowing
(22:33):
in on machines. So I dodo a variety of things. But then
I do a lot of specifics justfor pole water as well, so it's
varied. So rest days. Ido have rest days, Yes, normally
a Friday and a Saturday on myrest days, but the rest of the
week I'm normally doing most things andI do stretch most days. I've found
(22:57):
that to keep my body going,I have a wonderful sports massa too,
So I have an hour's massage everyfortnight to make sure my body isn't as
good as shape. And I swearby that that he's kept my muscles in
that tone to sound a little lumpsomewhere, he will work on those.
So he's just checked on everything oncea fortnight to make sure my body's okay.
(23:18):
So I think that has helped mekeep going as well. So I'd
be lost without him, Sue.I'm assuming that pull vaulting and training and
swimming and having massages. That's notall you do. Have you got a
day job. I do. Istill I have a lovely job. I
work for the Health Service. I'ma school nurse assistant. I go in
(23:41):
to see reception children, so that'sfour and five year olds. So I
do their height, weight, andI test their vision and hearing, just
to make sure that they're growing well, they're eating healthy, and that their
vision and hearing's okay. Because somechildren do conversate, they could be sort
of blinding one eye but the othereyes saying and you don't always pick up
(24:02):
on it. Even parents will say, well, I never knew, you
know, they were nearly blind inthat eye, because youngsters do compensate very,
very easily, and sometimes you justthink there might be a boy they're
not listening, but they're but they'rehearing is quite poor, so we pick
up on that. And I justlove working a little four and five year
old. So I'm well pass myretirement by about three years and I'm still
(24:22):
going and I don't really want togive up yet. Really, I just
love my job. I love thepeople I work with and so and I
love working with a little one,so I should keep going with that as
well as long as I can.Pole vaulting is is it expensive? I
mean, I'm thinking about when youtravel you've got to take your own pole,
and got about club expenses. Thisis very expensive. It is this
(24:45):
expensive, and our problem is wepull there aren't many airlines that want to
fly poles now, and we're stuckwith really two three possibly airlines that will
fly poles at a price. Andthen it's getting poles from the air port
to your stadium. So what we'vehad to find normally is you have to
hire a car and take a roofwith us to get the poles to the
(25:08):
stadium. So a lot of usall sort of try and get as many
poles as we can in our bags, and then we will sort of try
and ship in a little bit togetherto try and keep down the costs.
But that's the only way we cando it. And poles are expensive to
start off with. They're just undersix hundred pound a pole, and most
I only use two poles at themoment. But if you go to my
(25:29):
coach, he has probably about aboutfive is going to be taking to Poland
with him. But yeah, soit isn't a cheap sport. Why because
he's a larger man and you canwarm up on one pole, and as
the adrenaline goes, you need astifference differ pole. So you find you're
having to move up poles, sothey're weighted according to your body weights and
(25:51):
they're different lengths, so you couldmove up a length and up a weighted
pole just to give you more pingoff the top of the pole, because
more so you get the adrenaline goingand the power going into the pole,
you're bending the pole more so theyget softer, so you then have to
move up and use a stiffer pole. You can't all just share poles.
(26:12):
No, we don't know, andwe don't like to because you know,
it's like happened to other competition onSaturday and one of our lads was using
somebody else's pole and it's snapped inwarm up, which is they're never very
good for the person who owns thatpole because they then haven't got it for
competition. So it's never a goodidea, especially if you're in a big
(26:33):
competition to lend your poles, especiallyif it's before your competition, because you
could end up somebody breaking it andyou haven't got a pole to compete on
yourself, and you've just paid outall that money and done everything to get
your poles there, and somebody elsehas broken it. So as much as
I love sharing everything and helping otherpeople out my poles, I don't normally
(26:53):
allow, although I did once andmy rival, my American I've all beat
me on my pole. So that'sanother very good reason not to probably share
your poles. But no, she'sstill a great friend, and she was
just the better lady on the dayand she beat me on my pole.
Oh that must have been annoying.What did you do in Australia because you
(27:15):
couldn't drive down there? How didyou cope with the polls there? I
have a good friend who is English. He lives in Melbourne now and he
has a rather large pole vault groupthat he coaches, and I contacted him
and he said, don't worry,I've got quite a few athletes going because
he's got some Masters athletes within hisgroup. He said, I'll take what
(27:37):
poles you need and I'll take somewith me. And I think I use.
I think I used about three orfour of his poles the gang.
Some of them. I started offokay, and then as I got better,
I needed a different stiffer poles.So I was very very lucky.
So say a good friend, poolfraternity again all of them sharing poles,
and that was very good. Butthat was his club poles. They weren't
personal poles. They were club polesthat they had, and he took them
(28:00):
and I used them so because I'mnot sure otherwise what I would have done
there. Okay, basic question,how long? How long is a pole?
They're all different. I use twelvefoot poles three meters seventy. I
have got two bigger poles that arejust think now what length they are there?
(28:21):
They are another six inches longer,but they go up. They go
up from thirteen thirteen foot seven,fourteen foot fourteen and a half fifteen ft
fifteen foot six and then if youget the top, bolter's probably on sixteen
foot poles. So they when youpick them up, they're quite scary.
They feel like holding a scaffold pole. How they run that when you see
(28:44):
somebody of la Villani's stance, hecame to watch us in the competition,
and he's so quite tiny. BecauseI had a picture taken with him with
my coach and when you look atthe size pole he's on. I don't
know how a little person like that. It's the speed to turn over his
legs and the speed and to launchedthis great himself off this huge pole.
(29:07):
It is really quite scary. Buthe's just an extraordinary athlete. So like
a lot of all the top andpole vaulting athletes are, well, that
includes you. So if you don'tmind my saying, I just wish i'd
have started. I knew about apole and who when I was a youngster,
and i'd learned as a youngster andgrown up with it and perhaps done
something when I was a youngster,because it seems that sort of starting at
(29:30):
the age forty seven was just alla little bit missing the boat. But
but anyway, it's it's, it'sit's it's given me a love and a
passion at that age. So Ican't grumble, but I just wish i'd
been younger when i'd found out aboutthe event. Gosh, you were forty
seven when because you went with yourson, and I hadn't quite clocked that
you were forty seven at that stagewhen you started. Yes, I used
(29:52):
his pole and went off training oneday with his coach and yes, and
that's what set me off at fortyseven. So and I haven't looked back
since. I've loved every moment ofit. That's fantastic. So that's twenty
years. So one final question,how much longer do you think? I
don't like to think about it,Alex, I really don't. Well,
(30:12):
Dorothy, great friend, Dorothy wasgoing in her sevencies. So if I
can keep going as long as Dorothy, although she's a very, very fit
lady, I should be very happy. But I'd like to keep going,
say for another couple of years atleast, so still I can actually compete
in with my son, and sowhen he's a master's athlete, that would
be absolutely fantastic. And I'm nowcoaching my little seven year old grandson,
(30:36):
so if I can ever do acompetition when he's old enough and the three
of us can paint, that wouldbe in better. Still. Oh,
that would be wonderful. I thinkthe oldest woman pearl vaulter in the world
at the moment has flow Miler.Isn't she American? And she's eighty one
or eighty two, So it's notimpossible keep going, keep myself health,
(31:00):
and yes, just keep going yeah, yeah, Well, we'll all be
rooting for you. Sue. Thankyou so much for talking to It's absolutely
fascinating. Really grateful that you gaveus the time, and thanks for sharing
all your story. Thanks Alex Conversationsfrom the world of Warning Sports. This
(31:23):
is sports. What a great guestSue was heartfelt thanks to her. So
that's our show for this week.I'll be back in two weeks with another
inspiring guest. In the meanwhile,be sure to subscribe to WHISP Sports on
your podcast player. The show notesfor this episode can be found on the
(31:44):
Boulder Woman showpage at whispsports dot com. And while you're on the website,
you'll find a lot more coverage ofwomen's sports, from podcasts to videos,
interviews, and blogs covering all sportsaround the world. Do follow us and
share your comments on social media atWHISP sports and at Alex Rotus. We'd
(32:06):
really love to hear from you.If you've any suggestion for guests that would
be awesome, or if you'd liketo tell us what you think of the
show, just drop us a lineto info at whissports dot com. So
until next time, thanks very muchfor listening. We know there are some
great podcasts out there, so thanksfor listening to us, and thank you
for supporting women in sport of allages and everywhere.
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