Holly Bradshaw: Who is Team GB’s pole vaulter as she eyes medal in Tokyo Olympics final?

The Preston-born athlete is vying for a podium place on Thursday

Holly Bradshaw features in the Tokyo Olympics pole vault final on Thursday, hoping to add another medal to her already strong haul.

The 29-year-old has been collecting medals of all colours for over a decade, since taking bronze at the World Junior Championships in Canada back in 2010.

Since then, she has won gold, silver and bronze at the European Indoor Championships - the latter earlier this year in Torun, Poland - and also took gold at the 2018 Athletics World Cup in Glasgow.

Olympic duty is nothing new to Bradshaw, either - having competed in London 2012 and Rio 2016, Tokyo is her third time on this stage and her third time in the final.

It was a top-eight finish first time around, before managing fifth in Brazil five years ago, clearing 4.70metres

Such a height was not required in the Group stage of the Olympics last week, with Bradshaw clearing 4.55m to progress to the final.

She is the British indoor and outdoor record-holder, and is ranked sixth in the world by World Athletics in women’s pole vault at the end of July.

Her main competitors for medals in the final are likely to be Greece’s Katerina Stefanidi, Team USA’s Katie Nageotte and world No1 Anzhelika Sidorova, competing for the ROC.

With Team GB yet to flourish in this year’s track and field events, hopes are high Bradshaw can improve on her best results at the Olympics so far.