Nina Kennedy did her part to boost a big Wednesday for Australia by willing the country’s first-ever Olympic gold medal in the pole vault.
She cleared a season’s best 4.90m, beating American rival Katie Moon, the defending champion who settled for silver at 4.85m. Canada’s Alysha Newman also cleared 4.85m but was awarded bronze since she missed more jumps.
Kennedy, 27, found her spark at Stade de France and made sure she would not have a repeat of last year’s world championships when she shared the title with Moon.
“I wanted that outright gold medal,” Kennedy said. “I didn’t want to share it this time. I became really confident in talking to the media, it was really scary, really vulnerable, to lay it all out there.”
Kennedy and Moon agreed to share gold in Budapest in 2023 after both vaulting 4.90m.
Meanwhile, Kennedy’s win capped the largest gold haul in a single day of any Olympics, with four gold medals.
Three of the golds came early Wednesday as sailor Matt Wearn won his second straight title in the men’s dinghy class despite race delays and postponements. Then, skater Keegan Palmer dominated to defend his Olympic title from Tokyo.
Later in the afternoon, cyclists Sam Welsford, Kelland O’Brien, Oliver Bleddyn and Conor Leahy won in a tight victory over Great Britain, to give Australia its first gold in the event since the Athens Games.
Kennedy, started her campaign slowly when she failed on her first attempt of 4.70m but surged the rest of the way as she reached 4.90m.
“I knew first-attempt clearances at those high bars were going to take the gold,” she said. “I put all my focus into that exact second, and that’s how I won.”
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