The world indoor champion and European outdoor champion Molly Caudery suffered a complete meltdown in qualifying for the women’s pole vault at the Paris Olympics and failed to qualify for the final.
The 24-year-old British athlete, who set a national record of 4.92m this season, made three unsuccessful attempts at 4.55m. Before that, she chose not to jump on two of the warm-up heights – 4.20m and 4.40m, which played a very bad joke on her and deprived her of a place in the final. Molly Caudery was considered the clear favorite for the gold, not only because of her gold medal win at the European Championships in Rome less than two months ago, but also because she was the only woman this season to clear the 4.90m mark.
“I’m in shock right now. I am so disappointed. I have no excuse. I felt great and in the best shape of my life. I love large audiences, I’ve never felt more nervous. Right now I have no reason for what happened. I will need time to realize it”, said Molly Caudery immediately after his failure in Paris. “4.55m is a height I jump every day. I didn’t have an iota of doubt that I would make it. Some people might say that I started on a high note. When you jump 4.80m and 4.90m all year round, 4.55m shouldn’t be a problem. Just an unlucky day”, added she.
However, Molly Caudery’s elimination was not the only curious moment in the qualification.
As many as 20 jumpers qualified for the final, the last nine of them with an equal result of 4.40m. The remaining 11 in the final entered with 4.55m, and not a single competitor even reached the qualification standard, which was set at 4.70m. According to the program, 12 contestants were supposed to participate in the final.
