Katie Byres

Byres at a competition in France in 2012

Katie Byres (born 11 September 1993) is a British former track and field athlete who competed in the pole vault. She holds a personal best of 4.52 m (14 ft 9+3⁄4 in) for the event, set in Nevers, France on 18 February 2012.[1] Her highest national ranking during her career was third in 2012.[2] She also ranked 16th in the world in the 2012 indoor season.[3] She broke the British under-20 records for pole vault, indoors and outdoors.[4]

Born in Chesterfield,[5] Byres is a member of Sale Harriers Manchester. She became interested in pole vaulting after watching the 2004 Olympic pole vault final on television. She began travelling to Sportcity in Manchester to train for the event.[6] She was coached until 2013 by Julien Raffalli-Ebezant, who also coached national record breaker Holly Bradshaw. After then, she began training with Kate Rooney – herself a former pole vaulter. In 2008 Byres won the England Open Athletics Championships and placed fifth at the 2009 British Athletics Championships the following year, still aged 15. She later managed runner-up performances at the 2012 British Indoor Athletics Championships, 2013 British Indoor Athletics Championships and 2014 British Athletics Championships.[2]

In international age category competitions she placed tenth at the 2009 European Youth Olympic Festival,[2] won the B-final of the pole vault at the 2010 Summer Youth Olympics,[7] and came ninth at the 2013 European Athletics U23 Championships.[8]

She was also a participant at the 2012 World Junior Championships in Athletics, 2012 IAAF World Indoor Championships, and 2014 Commonwealth Games, but failed to record a valid height at any of the competitions.[9][10][11]

She retired from competitive pole vaulting after January 2015.[2] Following her pole vault career, Byres attended Nottingham Trent University, completing a degree in Events Management, and worked for Young Enterprise.[12]

  1. ^ Katie Byres. World Athletics. Retrieved 2021-01-18.
  2. ^ a b c d Katie Byres. Power of 10. Retrieved 2021-01-18.
  3. ^ Senior indoor 2012 Pole Vault women. World Athletics. Retrieved 2021-01-18.
  4. ^ Papps captures sprint double in Bedford, national junior record for Byres - UK World Junior Trials report - Barcelona 2012. World Athletics (2012-06-18). Retrieved 2021-01-18.
  5. ^ Katie Byres. 2014 Commonwealth Games. Retrieved 2021-01-18.
  6. ^ How aiming high paid off for sports star Katie Byres. Manchester Evening News (2010-10-14). Retrieved 2021-01-18.
  7. ^ Women's Pole Vault 1st Youth Olympic Games (athletics). World Athletics. Retrieved 2021-01-18.
  8. ^ European Athletics U23 Championships - Tampere (FIN) - 10 - 14 July 2013 - Results - Day 4 (PDF), European Athletics, archived from the original (PDF) on 17 July 2013, retrieved 6 April 2015
  9. ^ 2012 IAAF World Indoor Championships Women's pole vault Official results. World Athletics. Retrieved 2021-01-18.
  10. ^ "Pole Vault Women - 14th IAAF World Junior Championships". Archived from the original on 21 March 2016. Retrieved 19 June 2012.
  11. ^ Katie Byres. Commonwealth Games Federation. Retrieved 2021-01-18.
  12. ^ Katie Byres. Linkedin. Retrieved 2021-01-18.