2024-08-07 20:20:01
Australian Nina Kennedy, who shared world gold a year ago, became Olympic champion in the pole vault at the Paris Games on Wednesday evening, August 7 at the Stade de France.
Kennedy (27 years old) rose to 4.90 m, one centimeter off her personal best, and beat the American Katie Moon, who she climbed to the highest step of the podium in the world in the summer last. Moon cap at 4.85 m, like Canadian Alysha Newman, bronze medalist, decided from America in the number of attempts.
A competition that lasts almost 3 hours 30 minutes
Kennedy, who lives in Perth, in the west of her country, is the first Australian Olympic pole vault champion to be crowned since the introduction of the women’s event in 2000 in Sydney.
The Australian pole vaulter did not reach the Olympic final in Tokyo three years ago, after a physically impaired jump in qualification. It was the following year that she truly revealed herself on the international scene, after several difficult years, both physical and mental.
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At the Stade de France on Wednesday evening, the Olympic competition lasted for almost three and a half hours, as 19 pole vaulters (instead of the usual twelve) competed, after finishing the qualifications with situations numerous perfect equality.
The two French women who competed, Marie-Julie Bonnin and Ninon Chapelle, were in eleventh place, with 4.60 m, and in fourteenth place, with 4.40 m, respectively.
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