CORNISH pole vaulter Molly Caudery says she is determined to put the disappointment of last year’s Olympic Games firmly behind her as she prepares to defend her world indoor title in Nanjing, China this weekend.

The 25-year-old’s failure to qualify for the Paris 2024 final was clearly heartbreaking as tears streamed from her face inside the Stade de France.

However, time is a healer, and seven months on from that bitter setback, she aims to prove her worth once more on the global stage.

Having built up to the games with world indoor gold in Glasgow and breaking Holly Bradshaw's British record with a vault over 4.92m, her world collapsed in the French capital as she failed to clear her opening height of 4.55m.

“I still can’t really put it down to anything specific,” said the Truro-born athlete. “More than anything it has fuelled me. It has given me this extra drive that I did not know I had.

“You’ve got to make the best of a bad situation but it is not something I think about too much in a negative way. It’s in the past, I have moved on and I’m in a much better place.”

Indeed, Caudery finds herself in great shape ahead of this latest competition, where she is looking to defend the crown she collected 12 months ago in Glasgow.

In a promising start to the year, the Cornwall-born athlete cleared 4.85m in Madrid in February to win the overall World Indoor Tour Gold title.

That is a height five centimetres higher than any of her 12 rivals for world gold have managed this season, and in a line-up missing the entire Olympic podium.

“Nothing is a given but if I go out there and jump my best I can hopefully retain my title, which is what I'm going out there to do,” added Caudery.