‘Damn, girl, you are good enough’: This time, Nina Kennedy wasn’t going to share

There was no sharing this time. No question of who deserved gold, no polite enquiries of athletes about what they wanted to do now. This was emphatic.

Nina Kennedy is the Olympic pole vault champion.

Nina Kennedy cleared 4.9m to take the gold medal.Credit: Getty Images

On the most successful day in Australian Olympic history, Kennedy’s exploits delivered a historic 18th gold medal. While she didn’t share the title this time, she did share the glory on the day with Australia’s Matt Denny, who made it a rare double medal day in Australian track and field by claiming discus bronze.

Twelve months ago, when Kennedy and American Katie Moon were tied for the gold at the world championships, they were given the unusual money or the box choice of sharing a medal or continuing to jump for an outright victory. Their choice polarised sports fans and drew stronger criticism in America of Moon than it did of Kennedy in Australia. While it was partly like being criticised by an uncle with a comb-over for not wearing braces with your shorts, it was also a question that did not go away.

For a year Kennedy has politely answered the same question as if on a loop: would she share a gold medal again? On the only day that mattered the question didn’t come up. No one got near her.

“That was like the question I had been asked the very most, are you going to share the medal? And you know, deep down, I knew I wasn’t going to. I wanted that outright gold medal,” Kennedy said.

“It was really, really scary, really vulnerable, to kind of lay it all out there and say ‘I want the f---ing outright gold medal. This is what I want.’... And, yeah, I’m just really happy I got the job done,” Kennedy said.

“I have genuinely thought about this night every single day since those Budapest world championships.

“The night I finished in Budapest, you know, equal gold medal. Amazing. But the first thought I had was like, ‘OK now I have to win the Olympics. This is what I’m going to do.’ And I have thought about it morning, lunch, dinner, every single day.

“I’ve really just learned to believe in myself. You know, sharing with Katie will go down in history as one of my favourite competitions ever, but it really just ignited this self-belief in me, that, ‘damn girl … you are good enough to win an outright gold medal’. And maybe I didn’t think that before Budapest, but now I definitely do.”

Having achieved that individual Olympic gold to go with her world championship, Kennedy was not afraid to say she is now thinking of the world record. Yelena Isinbayeva’s world record of 5.06 metres is 16 centimetres from her winning effort in Paris.

Nina Kennedy cleared 4.90m to clinch outright gold.Credit: Getty Images

The night did not go easily. For tedious and avoidable reasons that will not happen again, 20 athletes went through to the final instead of the usual 12, which meant the competition was brought forward by 45 minutes and ended up running for several hours.

Kennedy missed a height early at 4.70m and was angry with herself. She knew from last year’s experience that that sort of early miss could hurt her on countback, given key rivals like Moon had easily cleared heights.

“I was angry because it was a good jump. And in pole vault, if you do a really good jump on a pole you kind of blow through the bar. And that’s what happened. You just have to give yourself a bit of an eye roll. But I knew the Olympics weren’t going to be won at 4.70m, so I just got back on with it,” she said.

Then one of the uprights holding the bar broke and held up competition while it was replaced.

“The winner was going to be who could handle the Olympics, the pressure, the breaking of the stands, the 20 girls in the qualification, the best. And when that happened [the stand breaking down] it was at such a critical moment in the competition that I kind of just told myself, ‘OK, this is an opportunity, take it, run with it. Be calm.’ And that’s what I did.”

‘It’s the greatest night’: Denny strikes bronze

Matt Denny visualised the cubby house between the trees on the oval of his hometown of Allora in Queensland where he used to train on the way to an elusive Olympic medal.

Denny tried to hit the cubby 85 metres away at every training session. As he stood in the discus circle of the Stade de France, he tried to blinker out the 80,000 people in the stands and imagine hitting the Allora cubby house.

He didn’t hit the figurative cubby, but after twice finishing fourth in major championships – Tokyo three years ago and last year at the world titles – Denny finally got himself on the dais. His 69.31m throw delivered bronze.

Discus thrower Matt Denny on his way to an elusive Olympic bronze medal.Credit: Getty Images

“I didn’t walk into the comp today going, ‘please, dear god, not another fourth’. I was walking in like, ‘we’re gonna win this’. I’ve never felt so calm walking into a comp,” Denny said.

“That’s the greatest men’s Olympic discus final ever. It’s the greatest night. It is amazing to be part of that and to have my name etched in that.”

Jamaica’s Roje Stona threw an Olympic record 70 metres for gold ahead of Lithuania’s Mykolas Alekna, the world record holder, who threw 69.97 metres for silver.

An emotional Denny said he couldn’t wait to get back to Australia to see his father, John, who has been battling health issues. He joked that his dad stopped giving him discus advice at age 12 after suggesting he use Coca-Cola on his hands for better grip. It didn’t go well.

“I think there’s a lot of people probably a little tipsy in the Railway [hotel] this morning. I heard it opened at 4am. Hopefully the tab’s not getting sent directly to my account. I’m very keen to get home to the Railway and have a few drinks with all the locals and party with the family,” Denny said.

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