BLACKBURN Harrier pole vault queen Holly Bleasdale is bidding to win her second high-profile event in a week at today’s star-studded AVIVA Grand Prix in Birmingham.

The 20-year-old defended her UK indoor title last Sunday with relative ease last week, a clearance of 4.72m at Sheffield’s Institute of Sport more than enough to see off her national rivals.

She will face fiercer competition at Birmingham’s National Indoor Arean this afternoon, coming up against 2009 world champion Anna Rogowska and Monica Pyrek, a silver medallist at the 2005 World Championships.

But Bleasdale outjumped the Polish duo in the Pedro’s Cup indoor meeting at Bydgoszcz earlier this month, in which she came second to Russia’s Olympic champion Yelena Isinbayeva, and now the Chorley-born star will be favourite to grab first place in the midlands today.

“The field at Birmingham should be really strong and obviously it forces me to jump higher if it’s a really competitive field, so hopefully it will be a good meet for me,” said Bleasdale.

Bleasdale’s busy schedule will continue next Thursday when she takes part in the XL-Galan Stockholm Indoor event, ranked the fourth best IAAF indoor meet in the calendar year.