Cook revels in front of Munich crowd

By Will Jennings in MunichSophie cook says sparkling in front of a pole vault-hooked German crowd was an experience she will never forget. The Dudley athlete, 27, delivered a solid showing in Wednesday night's European Championship final with a ninth-place finish behind British teammate Molly Caudery. Ad Cook cleared the bar at 4.40m in Munich after claiming a brilliant personal best of 4.50m in Monday morning's qualifying.

AthleticsBen Pattison hopes a fast finish will fire him onto the podium in MunichAN HOUR AGO She was unable to emulate those exploits with a medal in the final but took immense pride from her performances at the city's iconic Olympic Stadium. Cook said: «It was amazing. »It was an amazing atmosphere, an amazing experience and I'm really happy with how I performed.

It was great. «I jumped a personal best in the qualifiers so it's super positive Ð I learned a lot. »I'm really pleased that I cleared 4.25m and 4.40m on the first attempts today.

«Obviously would have loved 4.55m, but I can't be unhappy with that. »It was incredible Ð the crowd were really on board with watching pole vault and it was great." Cook kicked off her European campaign in memorable fashion as she cleared the highest bar of her career to sail into the final. That teed up a hotly-anticipated showdown under the lights where the Midlands star was looking to build on her eighth-place finish at the Commonwealth Games.

But she was unable to do so as flying Finn Wilma Murto soared to gold ahead of Greek star Aikaterini Stefanidi and Slovenian Tina Sutej. Fellow Brit Caudery finished seventh with a leap of 4.55m. And she added: «I came in the top eight so it was a great, great experience out there — I really enjoyed it.