Pole vaulting - mini egg and all

In the first of our Give it a Go series, reporter Chris Hyde takes on the most challenging track and field event of them all - pole vaulting.

I'm in midair when I realise something has gone horribly wrong.

The expensive European-made carbon fibre pole that I've been attempting to use to leverage myself over a 2-metre high bar is falling to the left, away from the bar, away from the safety of the mat.

And I'm falling with it.

All the YouTube videos of people messing themselves up that I foolishly watched before coming to the Manawatu Community Athletics Track come to life.

It feels like an eternity in the air. I hit the ground, half the body on the mat, my head on the turf. There's a mini egg on the top of my head but I'm allright.

"You know people have died doing this?" fellow pole vaulting newbie Ashleigh Sando says as I make my way back to the start of my mark.

Yes, I do.

It began as a challenge to myself. I don't eat track at all but I've at least tried every other athletics event, bar the hammer throw. In high school pole vaulting always seemed like a novelty sport.