Pole vault world champion Nina Kennedy’s golden moment was a $30K sacrifice

Australia’s Nina Kennedy and America’s Katie Moon agreed to share the gold medal at the world championships with a hug – SCOTT GULLAN reveals the rue cost of that sporting gesture.

Nina Kennedy of Team Australia and Katie Moon of Team United States react after agreeing to share the Women's Pole Vault title at the World Athletics Championships. Picture: Getty Images

It was the hug which cost Nina Kennedy $30,000.

When the Australian pole vaulter and Katie Moon, the American defending world champion, decided to share the gold medal rather than take part in a jump-off it had immediate financial ramifications.

Kennedy was looking at a $109,000 pay day if she’d won the world title which she actually thought she had when she cleared 4.90m on her third attempt before Moon responded with the same clearance moments later.

But her windfall took a significant hit when the pair came together after they were tied at the end of the competition.

Kennedy immediately suggested they share the gold medal which Moon agreed with the pair then hugging it out, an embrace that cost the Australian almost $30,000.

Women's pole vault joint gold medallist USA's Katie Moon (L) and Australia's Nina Kennedy. Picture: AFP

The new co-world champion will now take home a pay cheque of $81,750 for her heroics in Budapest.

Kennedy is likely to recoup a percentage of the lost income through bonuses with her shoe and clothing sponsor Puma for at least sharing the top of the podium at the world championships.

Whether that figure is as much as it would have been if she’d held the world title on her own isn’t known.

The new golden girl of athletics is also likely to turn her Budapest performance into some commercial dollars given the 26-year-old will now be one of the faces of Australia’s Olympic team looking towards Paris next year.

Kennedy and Moon’s hug-off rather than a jump-off evoked memories of the feel-good story of the 2021 Tokyo Olympics when high-jumpers, Italy’s Gianmarco Tamberi and Qatar’s Mutaz Essa Barshim, did the same thing after they couldn’t be split at the end of the competition.

They were applauded for the gesture – the result was the first athletics joint podium in more than a century – although the two close friends have since said they wouldn’t repeat it if they found themselves in the same position again.

Joint gold medallists Gianmarco Tamberi of Team Italy and Mutaz Essa Barshim of Team Qatar on the podium during the medal ceremony for the Men's High Jump at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. Picture: Getty Images

“For myself, I will never go back in the past and change what we have done. We will forever be remembered as brothers . . . friends,” Tamberi said.

“We both won because we both deserved that gold medal. When they ask us will you share again we say ‘no’ because we have done it once.

“But it does not mean we are not proud of it. I will never change the past even if you paid me or guaranteed me that I will be the one who wins that gold medal, I will share with him because I know he deserves, I know I deserve.”

It is only at the major championships where athletes shy away from jump-offs with it a common occurrence on the Diamond League circuit where prize money rather than medals and honours are the focus.

Conditions in Budapest were brutal for Australia's Nina Kennedy and American Katie Moon. Picture: AFP

There is where bonuses for certain results from sponsors plays a significant role and usually wins the moment when push comes to shove after sharing a result.

One of the factors which can’t be underestimated in the Kennedy-Moon decision was the gruelling conditions they’d been competing in for more than two-and-a-half hours.

The pair had 23 jumps between them after they both missed three attempts at 4.95m on a hot, humid night in Budapest with Kennedy’s coach Paul Burgess amazed the pair were still able to keep throwing punches at each other in the final.

“I think they were both just absolutely knackered,” Burgess said. “I can’t believe they were still jumping at the end, I couldn’t believe Nina was still jumping.”

When asked about if she’d do the same thing at the Olympics in Paris next year, Kennedy was diplomatic and pointed out how tough the competition had been.

“There is so much on the line, I have so much respect for Katie,” she said. “Pole vault is such a difficult event and we could see it in each other’s eyes out there tonight, we were both exhausted. We have so much respect for each other about how hard this event is.”