London 2012 Olympics: Holly Bleasdale records fourth highest pole vault in history to improve chance of gold "Everyone was on their feet shouting, and when I attempted 5.01 the atmosphere was just out of this world," she said. I've never experienced it like that before. I ran through twice and had one good attempt. I was lucky to have the chance to attempt a world record but next time I will be more mentally prepared. I can't wait to watch the videos and get back into a little block of training before the trials, where I will be off a full approach and hoping the crowd can spur me on some more. Bleasdale, who broke the British record last summer with a clearance of 4.70m, must now rate as one of Britain's best hopes for Olympic gold as long as she reproduce her form under the pressure of international competition. At last summer's World Championships in Daegu she made a tearful exit in the qualifying round, blaming exhaustion after her victory at the European Under-23 Championships. Remarkably, she only took up pole-vaulting in 2008 after turning up for a taster session at her Blackburn Harriers club being run by French coach Julien Raffalli, who spotted her talent immediately and now coaches her full-time in Manchester. Previously, she had specialised in the sprint hurdles and had dabbled in various throwing and jumping events. Bleasdale was not the only British jumper in top form over the weekend. The unheralded, and unfunded, Robbie Grabarz also made a superb high-jump breakthrough with a massive clearance of 2.34m that also puts him top of the world rankings. It was 5cm higher than his previous best, set indoors in Birmingham a fortnight ago, and was also well above the Olympic "A" qualifying standard. Encouragingly for Britain, it was the same height that earned Britain's Germaine Mason a silver medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. UK Athletics head coach Charles van Commenee said: "It's a promising start to the season. If Holly and Robbie manage to repeat this in the Olympic arena, we will all be partying afterwards. I recently witnessed outstanding practice in South Africa and Kenya at our warm-weather training camps and, based on that, I expect more athletes to make a strong mark in the months to come.