Peake Bows Out With A Bronze

By Owen Morgan

Pole vaulter Sally Peake won a bronze medal at the Muller British Athletics Championships on Saturday and promptly announced it would probably be the last time she competes at the Alexander Stadium event.

Peake, who won a silver medal for Wales at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, made the announcement shortly after clearing 4.15m to finish third behind Holly Bradshaw and Sophie Cook.

The four-time British Champion and Welsh indoor and outdoor record holder  said: ” Its bitter sweet today because it’s probably going to be my last British Championships.

“I’m probably going to retire from here. It’s going to be a change in my life and I will finish out the season and then go from there.

“I was going gun-ho at the Commonwealth Games to see where everything else went from there.”

The Cardiff -based physiotherapist added: “It was really, really difficult today, the wind made it really hard work.

“It made it a bit of pot luck, if you were stood on the runway and if the wind was good for you, you had a good chance at clearing a bar, but if not you then had to do what you could.

“The height was disappointing and I can’t read too much into it but I’m really happy with my position and pleased to get a medal.”

Another Welsh competitor in contemplative mood following his performance in Birmingham was para athlete Aled Sion Davies.

A disappointed Davies, finished 10th in the discus with a throw of 48.86 metres, and said it would probably be his last competition of the year – ruling out an appearance at the European Championships in August.

The three-time double world champion in discus and shot put said: “It’s been a tough year with a lot of things going on and I’ve been testing out different leg braces to see if I had the right brace.

“We experimented with a lot of braces and angles and it hasn’t gone to plan. The last couple of weeks has been tough to get everything together and see if I was good enough for the Euros which I wasn’t and this is my first and probably last competition this year. Now it’s time to go and have a break.

Davies may end season after disappointing discus.

“Every time I thought we were getting somewhere with a new leg brace – we’ve been through four because they kept breaking – so all the time I’ve thought I was taking two steps forward , I’ve been taking three back. It comes down to fine margins but they have such big effects.

“That was the worst possible performance I could have delivered. I’m not bothered about medals I want to do myself justice. I don’t want to go there and scrape a medal. It may do more harm than good for me so I won’t be going.”