From Cologne, Germany.

After what has been a pretty difficult month and a half I find myself in a really good place. I've finished my first week in Europe and competed in my first competition of my Olympic Preparation.

The last six weeks have been tough. I've dealt with an injury that stopped my preparation in it's tracks while my competitors have been putting up big results all over the world. It's been a bit of a battle to get through it and still maintaining a positive state of mind.

My back injury is now 99% fine and I feel like whilst my preparation may not have moved forward a great deal over the past 6 weeks it certainly has not gone backwards. I competed in Bydgoszcz, Poland on Tuesday and came second with a jump of 5.81m. I am really happy with this result. 5.81 is a great first up result but the way I was jumping was what I was most happy with, everything felt really consistent and I feel like it sets a good platform for some big results in the rest of the competitions I have lined up for July.

One of my main competitors for the Gold in Beijing Yevgeniy Lukyanenko won the competition with 6.01m, he is in great form and the 3rd guy to jump six metres this year. Men's Pole Vault is really going great guns this year and it's exciting to be in the mix.

I've now got a just over a week of training at my base in Cologne before I compete at a Pole Vault only meet in Jockrim, Germany on the 12th of July.