CORNWALL’S Molly Caudery missed out on defending her women’s pole vault title at the World Indoor Athletics Championships.

Having collected a first global gold in Glasgow a year ago, the Truro-born athlete was unable to replicate the feat in Nanjing, China.

Technical issues hindered the competition for long periods, a point highlighted by Caudery following her fourth-placed finish.

The 25-year-old - who has a season’s best of 4.85m - missed out on a medal on countback after failing to clear 4.75m.

France’s Marie-Julie Bonnin took Caudery’s crown, clearing 4.75m, whilst Tina Sutej and Angelica Moser claimed silver and bronze respectively.

“I’m really disappointed, I wanted to come out here after last year and do something and I know that I’m in shape to do something,” said Caudery. “But that competition was really hard. There were a lot of issues.”

Problems with the technology that lifts the bar meant the competition was delayed for 40 minutes and Caudery admitted she and other competitors struggled with the flow of the competition following the delay.

“I’m not putting too much blame on myself. I do wonder, without those technical difficulties, if I could have gone on to jump. But there’s no point thinking about that, I feel a bit flat, to be honest.”

Caudery will now set her sights on a gold medal bid at the World Championships in Tokyo in September.