SA pole vaulter Kurtis Marschall ready for the final at world athletics championships
SA young gun Kurtis Marschall says he has the form and confidence to produce a career-best jump in the pole vault final at the world athletics championships in London.
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SA YOUNG gun Kurtis Marschall says he has the form and confidence to produce a career-best jump in the pole vault final at the world athletics championships in London.
Marschall, 20, will hit the runway for his first major final in the early hours of tomorrow morning (SA time), hoping for a breakthrough result on the world stage.
The Happy Valley athlete cleared 5.6m in Sunday night’s qualifying at London Stadium to progress to the decider ranked equal 11th of the 12 finalists.
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Marschall aimed to improve on the 5.73m personal best he recorded at the IAAF Diamond League meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland, last month.
“I’m so pumped ... I’m very excited,” Marschall told Athletics Australia following qualifying.
“I’ve had pretty good attempts at 5.7m in the past few weeks (and) I’m showing that I have quite a big jump in there, maybe 5.8m, maybe 5.85m.
“But making the final is awesome.
“Now I’m just looking forward to going out there ... doing the best I can and letting the results take care of themselves.”
Marschall had some anxious moments in qualifying after twice failing at 5.45m before passing 5.6m at his first attempt.
The Western Districts Athletics Club member, who was the first to jump in his qualifying group, then missed three efforts at 5.7m forcing him to watch on helplessly as he awaited his fate.
“It was all down to that nervous wait which absolutely sucked,” said Marschall, who narrowly missed the final at last year’s Rio Olympic Games.
“But I scraped in at equal 11th so I couldn’t be happier.
“I’ve never been in a major championship final before.
“Just the buzz of being there will get me back up to that level that I’ve been producing in the past season.”
Originally published as SA pole vaulter Kurtis Marschall ready for the final at world athletics championships
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