Irie picks up triple gold at Australian Masters

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COMPLETE MADNESS SPORTS - PRESS RELEASE

Melbourne, Australia - April 11th, 2004

Masters titles start the season off with a series of wins.

Great Britain International pole vaulter Irie Hill started her 2004 outdoor season this weekend, ironically by competing in the Australian Masters championships at a competition held just a few hundred metres from her base in Melbourne, Australia.

The 2004 Australian Masters gave Irie a chance to compete outdoors after returning late from her trip to compete in the inaugural World Indoor Masters Championships in Germany. After failing to find a flight that would take her poles back, Irie got stuck in Germany longer than anticipated, missing a couple of key training sessions prior to this weekend, so she decided to stick to the short run she had used during the bulk of the winter.

Irie took Gold in the Pole Vault on Friday with a clearance of 3.80m, equalling her best ever start to an outdoor season when she eventually jumped 4.20m in 2000. She followed that with a second gold in the high jump aith 1.50m on Saturday, and completed the hat-trick of golds with a jump of 10.66m in the triple jump.

"Sometimes it's good to blow out the cobwebs early. I took a couple of weeks off after Sindelfingen, then I got stuck in Germany just as the snow came back down, so I haven't been able to work off a full-run in the vault yet. It's great to pick up 3 gold medals at the Championships, and the Masters competitions are so friendly, everybody is so inspiring! It's nice to be the youngest person in a competition for a change!", said Irie after the competition.

Husband and Coach Warren also picked up a couple of medals, despite a virus infection which meant effort was not quite what it should have been. Gold in the pole vault, and a bronze medal in the triple jump meant the pair had a heavy bag to carry home!

Irie is now planning some serious training ahead of her European season which will begin with an invitation to compete in Germany on May 29th, and may try and get another competition in Australia before returning during late May.

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