Nick BUCKFIELD by Tony Miller
When Nick Buckfield finished a marvellous fifth at the 1997 World Championships in Athens, it was the greatest result in the history of male UK pole vaulting. A first time clearance at 5.70, matching the height he achieved in qualifying, gave him this placing - Britain’s best ever at senior global (World or Olympic) level at that time.
Other achievements in a career bedevilled by injury include a 7th place at the 1996 European Indoors and 4th place in the 1996 European Cup Final (his best placing in six appearances in this competition). He competed in 2 Olympics, 5 World Championships and 3 Commonwealth Games and was UK number 1 for a record 9 years.
In domestic competition, Nick was National champion in 1995-96, 2002-3 and 2005 and won four indoor titles. That first indoor victory, with 5.61 in 1996, was one of 5 UK indoor records that he set in his career. He set four UK outdoor records: 5.70 in Sheffield in 1995 beating Keith Stock’s record that had stoo
d for 14 years, 5.71 at the 1996 AAAs, 5.75 on a cool gusty evening in Gateshead in 1997 and 5.80 in Hania in 1998 to became Britain’s first 19 footer.
His absolute best of 5.81 was set indoors in 2002 in the small north German town of Bad Segeberg. That vault put him no. 2 in the world at that moment and broke a UK record that had stood for 17 years.
Nick was a middle distance runner before picking up vaulting hints at the age of 14 - Crawley needed someone in other events in the Young Athletics League. He was a county judo player and also a schoolboy footballer with Crystal Palace where Gareth Southgate was a YTS player. In his 2 years as an U15, he achieved 2.80 and 3.00 to top the county rankings. 1988 was his first season as an U17 and he won the Sussex title, placed 5th in the English Schools and set a pb 4.10 in a late season meeting at Thurrock.
The following year saw him break the County U17 record with an early season 4.50, followed by a Sussex senior record of 4.71 in the County Schools Champs. The very next day, Nick improved again to 4.76 in the British League and came very close to a UK best of 4.81. That year he won the Southern and Home International Schools titles and was runner up in the English Schools and AAA’s. Showing his all-round abilities, he scored 4987 in the Octathlon to rank no. 3 in the UK.
Three years in the U20 age group followed, culminating with a place in the World Junior final in Seoul. He made his GBR junior debut in Finland in June 1991 where he cleared 5m for the first time and he won 5 Junior International vests in all. The period included two English Schools senior titles and a National indoor crown. A vault of 5.20 in the GRE Cup match in May 92 took him to 4th on the UK U20 All Time list. A score of 6337 for 3rd place in the English Schools Decathlon a
gain demonstrated his skills in many events.
Nick made his senior international debut in Jan 1993 in a match against Russia where he competed against the Olympic champion Maksim Tarasov. He improved again that year to 5.41 to go 6th on the UK All Time list. He was CAU and Southern champion in 1994 and finished 8th in his first Commonwealth Games in Victoria, Canada. His first AAA senior titles followed in 1995, but despite the 3rd highest vault of his career to date, failed to make the final of the World Championships. He also missed the final of his first Olympics in 1996 but would have needed to match his British record to advance.
It was surely no co-incidence that at the time he was setting all these British records, he was also greatly improving his sprint speed. In 1996, he was Sussex 200m champion in a CBP 21.53 and ran a late season 47.4 400m in the British League and the following year he won the Sussex 100m title and recorded a personal best 10.87.
He had many injuries, including a bulging disc in his back as well as ankle, knee, hamstring and pelvis injuries. Despite a sore knee and a Greek airstrike, Nick set his final outdoor record of 5.80 in May 1998, but that knee injury sidelined him for 3 months and he only just returned in time for the Europeans. Worse was to come because he was stretchered from the arena in Budapest in agony with a fractured hip and that cost him a medal shot at the Commonwealth Games. More injuries restricted him to just 4 competitions in both 1999 and 2000.
Nick cleared 5.75 at El Paso in April 2001. However, more injuries held him back including a hamstring injury in the European Cup and he only had 4 more competitions that year including the World Championships where he was unable to do himself justice. In 2002, he set his fourth British indoor record at 5.62 to win the Southern title and then won the AAA crown prior to that fabulous 5.81. He had to withdraw from the European Championships and World Cup but managed to get back to finish 4th equal in the Commonwealth Games.
He had four indoor competitions in 2003, with a best of 5.61, but had to withdraw from the World Indoor team with a back injury. He showed an encouraging return to top form when he vaulted 5.70 in Cottbus and 5.65 in Ostrava followed by a 5th place in the European Cup. He won his fourth AAA title but this time it was a hamstring injury that hampered his chances in the World Championships and he failed to qualify for the final.
In 2004, Nick was hospitalised after a freak accident in Cottbus. After clearing 5.70, 5cm above the Olympic A standard, he fell directly onto his pole while attempting 5.80. He had an operation on his abdomen and stayed in hospital in Germany for a week and lost 3kg in weight. In the circumstances his 5.60 at the Olympics in Athens a few months later was a very good performance, and it was a minor miracle he even made it at all.
A fifth AAA title was the highlight of 2005 in which his season’s best was 5.60. This turned out to be his last full season.
He took fourth place at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne in March, but a ruptured Achilles tendon kept him out for over a year. He returned for 3rd at the 2007 UK’s.
Nick confirmed his retirement from the sport in August 2008. His best that year of 5.20 constituted a UK M35 record and it rounded off 18 successive years of clearing 5m or higher. A persistent hamstring problem meant he could not compete at the Olympic trials and he told BBC Southern Counties Radio: "I can't perform at the level I want when I'm carrying an injury.
He chose the Tom Lintern Open meeting at Crawley to bring his colourful career to an end. He said to the Argus “I am pleased with what I have achieved. I had the best ever performance by a British athlete in the pole vault at the World Championships and am still the British record holder. I’ve got memories that I will cherish forever like competing alongside a living legend in Sergey Bubka and walking into the Olympic Stadium in Sydney and hearing 100,000 people roaring.”
When he retired, Nick had the 10 highest heights by a British athlete to his name. His UK record stayed intact until 2012 when it was broken by Steve Lewis while it was another two years before his indoor record was bettered. Steve also went one better than Nick’s Athens 5th place by finishing 4th in the 2012 Olympics.
Nick came out of retirement temporarily in 2009 to compete for Crawley in a couple of British League matches and help them gain promotion to Division 2.
Nick is now a sports massage therapist. He is also an athletics coach and has taken up the Triathlon.
'with acknowledgements to Ian Tempest and Peter Matthews'