BRITISH pole vault record holder Nick Buckfield set a UK best this year with 5.50m to show he is in solid form early on at the inaugural Ashford Town street pole vault competition on Saturday.

He thrilled the Ashford crowd going very close to 5.60 after coming in at 5.20 in the four strong field.

Buckfield, who holds both the indoor and outdoor records, was happy enough with his performance just coming off the training camp at Cyprus for his first competition of the year.

It set him up well for the Grand Prix event in Milan later in the week. He said: "It was a good day and the set-up was excellent. Conditions were good with the vault well protected from the little wind and the crowd seemed to enjoy the occasion."

He also praised the specially constructed runway which was built for the competition using a piece of the 2002 Commonwealth Games track and is to be used following the competition to provide local athletes with indoor training facilities.

Buckfield, a veteran of street vaults having first done one in 1996 in Sweden, said: "The runway was very springy and as I have gone down in bodyweight there were a few problems to sort out as I wasn't sure which pole to use at first but it went well and it was good to get the cobwebs out."