Nick Buckfield hopes to reignite his career at the European Indoor Championships tomorrow.

The British No.1 was one of the hottest pole vaulters on the planet when he last competed in the event three years ago thanks to a sizzling clearance of 5.81m which saw him rise to third in the world rankings.

The Crawley AC star has gone completely off the boil since then and only booked his place on the plane for Madrid at the last minute after a series of spectacular failures.

Buckfield's problems were highlighted when he no-heighted at the AAA Championships three weeks ago which put his hopes of making the Great Britain squad in jeopardy.

He finally achieved the qualifying height of 5.45m at a specially arranged meeting in Manchester two weeks ago but admits he is travelling to Spain more in hope than expectation.

Buckfield, from Southgate, said: "I have had a few problems in my personal life and it has affected my jumping. I have lost a bit of my spark and I need to get it back.

"It is really annoying because I am in really good shape physically for the first time in years but mentally things aren't right. I believe I am strong enough to jump six metres but unless I sort things out it is not going to happen.

"My rhythm has completely gone. I am like a big kid doing the long jump who sprints as fast as he can down the runway but then stutters when he gets near the take-off board.

"There is no consistency in my jumping. Every run up is different which means every vault is different and when you only have three attempts to clear a height it makes it very hit and miss.

"So far this season it has been more miss than hit for me but sometimes things can just click. Hopefully that will happen in Madrid but it is a lottery how I will get on really.

"The last time I competed in the European Indoors I was in the best form of my life but I failed to even make the final so maybe this time it will be the other way around."

Buckfield, 31, is so keen to get to the root of his current problems that he is planning big changes to his training regime when he returns from Madrid, whether he is successful or not.

After working at Broadbridge Heath with Peter Sutcliffe for the last 16 years Buckfield believes the time has come to shake things up in a bid to realise his full potential.

"I have become very stagnant where I am," he said. "I am not parting ways with Peter but I do need to look at other avenues and get some new ideas.

"When you have worked with the same person for so long you can become a bit complacent. When that happens you start to miss things which someone else would spot straight away.

"I have probably only got four or five years left in my career and I want to make the most of it. I know I am capable of a lot better than I have shown recently but it may take a lot of hard work to prove it."

The preliminary round of the pole vault takes place tomorrow afternoon with the final at 5.30pm on Saturday.