By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

AFTER spending the past year working on his technique in a new location, former national decathlon record holder Ken Mullings decided to go back to Urbana, Illinois, to continue his training in his attempt to qualify for the 2024 Olympic Games in July in Paris, France.

Mullings, whose national record was relinquished to his former training partner and close friend, but arch rival, Kenderick Thompson last year, got in his first meet for the year at the Illini Open over the weekend.

At the meet, Munnings vaulted to a national indoor record-breaking performance in the individual men’s pole vault, a victory added to the 60-meter hurdles and a seventh-place finish in the shot put.

The 26-year-old Mullings had a clean sheet in the pole vault with first clearances of 14-feet, 06 ¼-inches or 4.43 meters, followed by 15-00 ¼ (4.58m), 15-06 ¼ (4.73m), 15-00 (4,88m) and finally his winning height of 16-06 (5.03). But he failed at his three attempts at 17-00 ¾ (5.20m).

“It felt really good. I felt that all the work that I’ve been doing after Chile is paying off,” said Mullings, about his final meet in October when he competed at the Pan American Games in Santiago where he failed to post a mark. He suffered an injury on the last day of competition and was unable to complete the grueling ten events.

“Now I just have to build on and get more points so that I can compete in multiple events (decathlon). It went really well. It also helped that it was the first event so I went into it more energised. I feel there’s more energy in the tank. I just have to try some bigger poles and get the job done.”

It wasn’t until Mullings got the confirmation from national hammer record holder Delron Innis during their competition after the meet that he discovered that he had erased Brent Vanderpool’s national pole vault record of 4.95m that he established on February 15, 1988 at the Naval Academy at the Halsey Field House in Annapolis, Maryland.

“That was crazy,” said Mullings, who admitted that the way he performed on Saturday, there’s no reason why he can’t mount up to 5.15 or 5.20m.

While he was thrilled to get the record, Mullings said it helped him tremendously as he competed in the other two individual events in the competition.

In the shot put, Mullings had to settle for sixth place with his heave of 50-0 ½ (15.25m). Five competitors, all from Illinois, had throws better than Mullings, led by senior champion Tyler Sudduth with 61-07 (18.77m).

“I was really pleased with that performance,” Mullings stated. “Everything just went for me in that event.”

And on the track, taking the title in the 60m hurdles in 7.83 seconds, well ahead of his nearest rival, Jack Elder, a senior at Butler, who ran 8.03 for second. Mullings got out of the preliminaries with the fastest qualifying time of 7.92 with Elder trailing with the second fastest in 8.26.

“That was a really good run. I could still clean it up a bit because my trail foot hit the hurdles, so I know there’s more in the tank for the hurdles as well,” Mullings said.

In Urbana, Mullings is back under the supervision of coach Petros Kyprisnou, whom he worked with for the first time last year.

“After the improvement I made with him last year, I decided to go back this year,” Mullings said. “I came up here a little earlier to get in the training and so I’m glad that I made that decision because it’s already starting to pay off.”

Before he focuses on the Olympics, Mullings said he wants to take a crack at the World Indoor Championships in Glasgow, Scotland from March 1-3, so he will start his campaign to qualify by competing in his first heptathlon on January 27-28. The heptathlon for men is seven events indoors, compared to the ten events for the decathlon outdoors.

“I don’t know how many points I need to score. I just need to get a top six position and hopefully no other Bahamian will get past that,” Mullings said. “If the way things happened today went, I’m highly confident.

“Today went beautifully and it wasn’t no fluke that I got over these bars or ran the times and threw these distances. I just need to clean up some things and get sharper when I compete again. The goal right now is to qualify for World Indoors.”

Once he’s done indoors, if he qualifies, Mullings said he’s willing to step up his training for the outdoors and his quest to qualify for the Paris Olympics in July.