Incredible spate of national records continues with 25-year-old clearing 1.99m to break Katarina Johnson-Thompson’s mark

Surely there have never been so many British records broken so early in the year before. We are barely into February but already national marks have fallen to Dina Asher-Smith (60m), Nicole Yeargin (300m), Matt Hudson-Smith (300m), Keely Hodgkinson (600m) and Sam Atkin (3000m). Hodgkinson’s mark was also, of course, a world best.

On Saturday (Feb 4) another UK mark fell when Morgan Lake cleared 1.99m in the high jump in Hustopeče in the Czech Republic.

Previously the UK record was 1.98m held by Katarina Johnson-Thompson from the Rio Olympics in 2016, which means Lake’s mark is an outright national record.

It was also a PB for the Windsor, Slough, Eton & Hounslow athlete, as her best was 1.97m – a height she achieved coincidentally at the same Hustopeče meeting in 2019 and also when winning the British outdoor title in 2018.

Lake was a prodigious combined events athlete as a teenager – winning the world junior heptathlon and high jump titles in 2014. But after focusing on high jump she qualified for two Olympic finals, finished sixth in the 2017 World Championships, fourth in the 2018 World Indoor Championships and second at the Commonwealth Games in 2018.

READ MORE: How they train – Morgan Lake

Last year did not go brilliantly but she still won the British title, finished fourth in the Commonwealth Games and seventh at the European Championships.

Just hours before Lake’s performance, Hudson-Smith clocked 32.72 at the South Carolina Invitational to beat his own UK indoor record of 32.80 from last year.