Team England's Sally Scott has described herself as "flabbergasted" and "speechless" after picking up a bronze medal in the pole vault final at the Commonwealth Games this evening.
Scott shared third place with Canada's Alysha Newman at Hampden Park in an event that was heavily affected by adverse weather conditions, with the start being pushed back by 45 minutes.
The 23-year-old cleared a mark of 3.80m to win the bronze - a height that would have seen her finish bottom of the pile in Delhi four years ago - and she believes that good judgement was the key to adapting to the weather.
"I don't know how many girls [put the bar higher], but a lot of the girls [went higher], so I'm really glad that I got over the bar because I need a medal," Scott told Sports Mole.
"I think I made good decisions off a shorter run-up, shorter poles and I didn't have to push as hard. Mentally you don't have to push as hard if you're on shorter poles, so I was really happy with that decision. I'm just flabbergasted, speechless!"
The delay to the start of competition did little to improve conditions in Glasgow, with rain pouring down throughout the evening, but Scott played down the impact that the extra wait had on the athletes.
"It didn't help, but it didn't make a difference I don't think. I did a run-through before my first time before heats, so I couldn't have taken off from that. A lot of girls kept going back onto the track because, I don't know, maybe they were slowing down to the jump or something," she added.
"After that, obviously the weather picked up a lot, Alana jumped 4.50m so the results looked really quite bizarre, but that middle part of the competition was really, really tough. There was so much rain."
Having clinched a place on the podium, Scott is now optimistic about her chances in future events and is looking forward to competing indoors once again.
""I'm really happy with how I controlled myself - the fact that I wasn't nervous, I felt fine, I was really happy about that. I'm just looking forward to jumping indoors and hopefully getting some PBs," she added.
Australia's Alana Boyd won gold in the event, while Sally Peake of Wales claimed silver.
Barney Corkhill
