LUKE Cutts confirmed his status as Britain’s best young pole vaulter with an excellent display at the World Youth Championships in Beijing. The Dearneside High AC star put in a brilliant performance for Great Britain, recording a magnificent fourth best height in the world in his age group. Cutts improved on his personal best clearances twice to reach the final. He was only moved to ninth position on count back due to taking more attempts to reach his height in the early stages. From a series of 10 vaults through the heights, well higher than a double decker bus, from 4.90m, 5.00m, 5.10m, 5.20m and 5.30m being his final clearance, Cutts made three very strong attempts at 5.50m, only missing clearance by the thickness of his vest. The 5.20m, then 5.30m were his new personal bests. He was using new poles for the first time which made his performance an even more remarkable feat. He was using two 16ft special carbon fibre poles with varying strengths, one at 195lb and the other at 200lbs. They arrived from America only one week before Beijing. The last minute push was mainly due to economics. “The Mexborough Lions stepped in and bought him one and, I personally, paid for the other and was very willing to do so,” said his coach Trevor Fox. Luke progressed through the qualifying round in sixth place from a field of 28 competitors until the final of 15 athletes. “The standards that have to be reached to be world class are obviously extremely difficult to achieve. In the specific terms of the pole vault, so much has to come together to make it all align and synchronise at speed, body shape and position, angle and triangulations of forces and time have to be precise. “That is the mark of Luke’s skills, all that would be changed on new first time poles. Add to that the pressures of the Championships of the World and the preparation that takes, you need to be extremely durable, robust and solid and Luke is all that,” said coach Fox. Cutts returned home to a hero’s welcome and immediately set his sights on a place at the Olympics in 2008. He said: “The qualifying height for Beijing 2008 is 5.65m and I should be able to make that even though there’s a bit of competition from other athletes for a place,” . He trains four days a week, running Sundays and building his strength and fitness with rope work, weight training and gymnastics.