Molly Caudery keeps her cool in Rome to boost hopes of first

Pole vaulter is chasing European success before bid to end 40-year wait for a British woman to win Olympic field gold

Not since Tessa Sanderson hurled a javelin far and high into the Los Angeles sky in 1984 has a British woman won an Olympic gold medal in a field event. But with every leap that 24-year-old Molly Caudery takes, the expectation grows that a 40-year old hoodoo is about to be shattered.

In the past few months Caudery has won the world indoor pole vault title and leapt higher – 4.86m – than anyone else. Now, at these European Athletics Championships in Rome, she is hunting her first outdoor title. And the signs continue to be eerily good.