Nina Kennedy shares pole vault world title after stunning gesture from rival Katie Moon
Australia’s newest world champion was crowned after a gruelling final and a tear-filled gesture that stunned the world as Nina Kennedy claimed gold with cramp taking over her body.
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Nina Kennedy was convinced she wasn’t going to get the answer she wanted.
Her body was tired, her mind fried from an incredible world championships pole vault final but suddenly she was staring at a jump-off against the reigning Olympic and world champion.
The Australian and her rival, Katie Moon, had finished locked together on 4.90m after a pulsating two-and-a-half hour competition. Both had then missed three attempts at 4.95m which meant it was a tie.
Initially Kennedy thought she was going to win if Moon missed her last attempt but officials corrected her and pointed out that the world title would be settled by a jump-off.
That was the last thing she wanted to do. It would have meant having one more attempt at 4.95m and if they both missed going back to 4.90m and then repeated it over and over until there was an outright winner.
But there was one other option which was all Kennedy was focussed on has she walked over, her legs starting to cramp up, to see Moon after she’d missed her final attempt at 4.95m.
Her mind had drifted to the great moment at the Tokyo Olympics when high-jumpers, Italy’s Gianmarco Tamberi and Qatar’s Mutaz Essa Barshim, ditched a jump-off and agreed to share the gold medal.
She was trying to read Moon’s face but couldn’t so she just went with it: “‘Hey girl you maybe wanna share this?”
Immediately she saw relief flood over the American’s face. “Yeeessss,” she said.
Kennedy still couldn’t believe it: “Are you sure? You’re the bloody GOAT.”
She was sure and immediately Kennedy burst into tears. She was now a world champion.
Fifteen minutes earlier Kennedy thought she had the gold medal all to herself when she sailed over 4.90m to break her own Australian record for the second time in the evening.
Moon was yet to have her third attempt but Kennedy was convinced she’d just delivered the jump she’d been dreaming about for her whole career.
With a world title on the line, head-to-head against the reigning champion, in front of 35,000 screaming fans and millions watching on TV around the globe, the former gymnast from Busselton had delivered the perfect vault.
She celebrated accordingly with multiple fist pumps gestured towards her coach Paul Burgess in the stands.
“I think you could tell from my celebration at 90 I thought I had it in the bag,” Kennedy said. “I was like ‘Yeah, I got this, she ain’t doing that’.”
Kennedy didn’t know what to do as Moon went for the jump which was going to decide if she was a world champion.
“It’s so hard because if she clears you have to jump again so it is this weird balance of watching but I need to focus on myself,” she said.
“But I don’t want to look like a bitch, you have to clap, you have to watch but it is this weird thing as you are also trying to fix the technical things with the coach so there is so much going on plus there are races going on.
“It was exhausting out there.”
When Moon did clear it, Kennedy tipped her hat: “I think that just shows how much of a fierce competitor she is, she is the GOAT of the sport so, yeah, respect to her.”
After the decision to share the title was made, Kennedy got emotional, she hugged Moon, hugged Burgess and then waved to her mother, Gwenda, in the stands.
“It’s so cool, I think it is such a special moment to share with her (Moon) and yeah we are actually connected forever now,” she said.
“Me and Katie have known each other for a really long time, we are not as great friends as they (Tamberi and Barshim) are, we are fierce competitors but I have so much respect for her.”
Moon said she was “completely satisfied” with the shared outcome.
“When the final started I didn’t think about how sharing a gold medal would work for me but now I am completely satisfied,” she said.
“When it became obvious that only Nina and I were standing still, I thought the show has just started. I think we both motivated each other.
“When she had a good attempt in a height, I also wanted to have it immediately. It was tiring but worth the effort. What an amazing night, I hope everyone enjoyed that one. We did.”
Kennedy joins the great Steve Hooker as an Australian pole vault world champion. He won the title in 2009 in Berlin, 12 months after he’d been crowned Olympic champion in Beijing.
She had been building to this moment over the past couple of years. Her Tokyo Olympics was a disaster with a late injury and then a Covid exposure issue saw an early exit in qualifying.
After some soul-searching she bounced back last year to win bronze at the world championships in Eugene, Oregon. It changed the landscape for the 26-year-old who says her rivals started looking at her differently, she was no longer the bubbly promising Aussie but a serious medal contender.
And now they see her as a world champion.
AUSSIE GOLD: KENNEDY OUR NEWEST WORLD CHAMPION
By Scott Gullan
Nina Kennedy is Australia’s first women’s pole vault world champion after a stunning gesture from her arch rival at the end of an extraordinary final.
Kennedy and defending champion Katie Moon both finished on the same height, 4.90m, with the American deciding against a jump-off which meant the pair were both awarded gold medals.
The act of kindness from Moon was similar to one of the most memorable moments of the Tokyo Olympics when Italy’s Gianmarco Tamberi and Qatar’s Mutaz Essa Barshim agreed to share the high-jump gold medal.
Kennedy burst into tears after the pair’s brief discussion, hugging Moon and then racing over to find her coach Paul Burgess in the crowd.
The former gymnast from Busselton in WA smashed her own Australian record en route to the biggest moment of her career.
Katie Moon 🇺🇸 and Nina Kennedy 🇦🇺 agree to a tie for the world title in pole vault â™¥ï¸ pic.twitter.com/SMzpIMfTGR
— Paul (@withahalftwist) August 23, 2023
Kennedy confirmed it had been her idea to share the gold medals.
“We were out there for such a long time, we were pushing each other to the absolute limit,” Kennedy said. “Katie is the world champion, she is the Olympic gold medallist, I didn’t think she would want to share it. I thought we might need to keep jumping.
“But I kind of looked at her and said, ‘Hey girl you maybe wanna share this?’ and the relief you could see it on her face and you could see it on my face and it was mutual.
“Absolutely incredible to share a gold medal with Katie Moon. We have been friends for so long, so super special.”
Kennedy revealed she thought she’d clinched the title when she made 4.90 on her final clearance which put all the pressure back onto Moon.
“I think you could tell from my celebration at 90 I thought I had it in the bag, I was like ‘Yeah, I got this, she ain’t doing that’,” she said. “I threw my arms up in the air and then she jumped it.
“I think that just shows how much of a fierce competitor she is, she is the GOAT of the sport so yeah, respect to her.”
Moon said she hadn’t previously thought about sharing the gold medal but was “completely satisfied” with the result.
“When the final started I didn’t think about how sharing a gold medal would work for me but now I am completely satisfied,” she said.
“What a battle it was, oh my … When it became obvious that only Nina and I were standing still, the show has just started. I think we both motivated each other.
“When she had a good attempt in a height, I also wanted to have it immediately. It was tiring but worth the effort. What an amazing night, I hope everyone enjoyed that one. We did.”
Watched by her mother Gwenda in the stands, Kennedy went toe-to-toe with Moon, the reigning Olympic champion, with both of them clearing 4.90m with their final attempts.
They had earlier both had only one miss for the competition, the Australian at 4.75m and Moon at 4.65m.
Kennedy broke her own national record by three centimetres when she cleared 4.85m at her first attempt before delivering on 4.90m.
She now joins the great Steve Hooker as a pole vault world champion. He won the title in 2009 in Berlin, 12 months after he’d been crowned Olympic champion in Beijing.
The gold medal was within Kennedy’s grasp before Moon delayed the party by scrambling over 4.90m at her third attempt despite clearly hitting the bar which somehow stayed on.
They both then had one good attempt each at 4.95m before shaking hands and agreeing to share the title.
Kennedy’s heroics surpasses Tatiana Grigorieva’s silver medal at the Sydney 2000 Olympics.
She had matched Grigorieva’s world championships record last year when she took the bronze medal in Eugene, Oregon.
It was that performance which changed everything for Kennedy who went form bubbly promising Aussie to serious medal contender.
Kennedy noticed the shift, remarking after her qualifying in Budapest that her opponents had started looking at her differently.
“I went to the worlds last year hoping to do my best and now I am coming into these worlds wanting to win. It’s no secret I want to be on that podium and at the top,” she said.
“The other girls, we are interacting differently and now they do see me as a threat.”
And now they see her as a world champion.
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