A remarkable story has emerged after Luke Cutts (British Pole Vault Record Holder, 5.83m) and Adam Hague (World Youth Record Holder, 5.60m) competed in the prestigious Texas Relays, 28th March 2015.
As the British stars arrived in Austin, USA, a vaulter’s worst nightmare became a reality, their poles had disappeared into the baggage black hole! At World level borrowing poles is a huge disadvantage. And so, to the rescue, enter Bruce Caldwell and the team from ESSX poles.
Two days prior to the meet, all the technical details for Cutts and Hague’s poles were collated and scrutinised by team ESSX, the Fort Worth manufactures of global leading poles.
Cutts and Hague were invited to oversee the production process and, by the end of the day, both had a range of new poles designed and calibrated to ensure they could compete against the best.
The City of Sheffield & Dearne AC athletes produced outstanding performances, both clearing 5.60m moving to equal second on the UK 2015 rankings (behind Steve Lewis’ 5.71m, indoors at altitude in the USA, February 2015). Hague’s vault was a world lead for his age group.
Trevor Fox, coach to both men, had been expecting good progress from both his athletes but, after a worrying couple of days, commented positively on their early season progress and thanked the remarkable efforts of Bruce and the ESSX team.
Luke and Adam are converts, hardly surprising; lost luggage to hot property!
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UST – ESSX are based in Fort Worth, Texas, USA. Ex-Great Britain international pole vaulter Allan Williams represents them in the UK.
Big thanks to Bruce and his colleagues from the Dearne-Sheffield high flyers and support team.
