Luke Cutts insists he has learned a lot from his first major final after a shoulder injury hindered his chances of a medal at the World Indoor Championships in Sopot, Poland on Saturday.

The pole vaulter, 26, went into the event as favourite after a superb indoor season which has seen him win the British Championships and set a national record. But the Thurnscoe man hurt his shoulder in the warm-up and finished eighth with a height of 6.65m.

The winner, Konstadinos Filippidis, cleared 5.8m which is below Cutts' British record while he has beaten the Greek on several occasions recently.

"I am happy with the result as it was my first major final," said Cutts, who did not make the final of the outdoor World Championships in Germany in 2009.

"I was going for a medal but I ripped my shoulder in the warm-up which didn't help. I still jumped quite well but it was very painful and we'll never know what would have happened if I had been fit.

"The other thing was that I was very excited to be in my first major final and I was probably a bit too eager to jump so I rushed it. I will learn from that.

"If I had been selected for Moscow (last year's outdoor World Championships which he was controversially left out of despite being British Champion) then I would have had more experience."

Cutts has had a scan on his shoulder this week and is waiting for the results to discover how long he will be out of action.

He is hoping the injury will not be serious enough to hinder his preparations for the outdoor season in which he is scheduled to compete in the Commonwealth Games, where he will be aiming for gold, the European Championships and several Diamond League meetings. He will also be going for the outdoor British record of 5.82m and looking to retain his national title.