Nina Kennedy has 15-year-old world record in her sights after leaping to Paris Olympic gold

After sharing last year’s world title Nina Kennedy is now the sole owner of Olympic gold. With that box ticked, there is a certain record - that has stood the test of time - ‘will be on the cards’.

Gold for Nina Kennedy. Picture: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

Australia’s new Olympic champion Nina Kennedy will now set her sights on the 15-year-old pole vault world record.

Every day for the past 12 months since she shared the world title with American Katie Moon at the Budapest world championships, Kennedy has thought about the night of August 7 in Paris and winning the Olympic title.

With that box ticked thanks to a clutch clearance of 4.90m, the 27-year-old is ready to turn her attention to Yelena Isinbayeva’s world record of 5.06m which she set in Zurich in 2009.

Nina Kennedy celebrates her gold medal in the pole vault. Picture: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

“I have genuinely thought about this night every single day since those Budapest World Championships,” Kennedy said. “The night I finished Budapest, you know, equal gold was amazing but the first thought 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 learnt to believe in myself. You know, sharing with Katie (Moon) will go down in history as one of my favorite competitions ever but it really just ignited this self belief in me.

“It was like, ‘Damn girl like you are good enough to win an outright gold medal. And maybe I didn’t think that before Budapest but now I definitely do. And like I said, it’s scary. It’s vulnerable to put yourself out there and to say that. But now I am, I really, truly believe that.

Nina Kenndey has delivered one of Australia’s great athletic performances to take gold in Paris. Picture: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

“At the London Diamond League (last month) I had really, really good attempts at 5.95 and that was probably the first time that I thought to myself maybe the world record is possible.

“So tonight was about winning the goal. And, you know, I’m still quite young in the scheme of things so maybe in the next few years, that world record will be on the cards,”

Kennedy was proud of the mental strength she showed in a competition which went for more than three-and-a-half hours including a delay when the medals were on the line because of an issue with the pole vault stands.

Nina Kennedy clears the bar in the pole vault final. Picture: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

“They took 19 or 20 girls through (qualifying) to the final that has never happened before so I was a bit annoyed at first but I really just had to tell myself, the winner of this competition is going to be the person that can maintain their focus for the longest,” she said.

“So I took a little bit of a different approach. I was really trying to calm myself out there. I wasn’t getting too amped up in the start, so I knew first attempt clearances at those high bars were going to take the gold.

“I put all my focus into that exact second and that’s how I won.”

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The Western Australian has dealt with a lot of curveballs this year including the stress fracture in her back flaring in May and her coach Paul Burgess leaving the WAIS set-up which threw her out her training structure.

“There have been a lot of hiccups this season, the coaching situation, my physical health, everything I feel like was thrown my way, even to the last second with the stands,” she said.

“It was kind of just like, I haven’t come this far just to come this far, throw anything at me and I will handle it. That was what my thinking was like, ‘I have gone this long, handling setbacks, handling pressure, handling everything. just bring it on at this point, I’ll handle it’.”

Nina Kennedy leaps into the air after winning gold. Picture: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

Kennedy said she was looking forward to celebrating Australia’s second pole vault medal - the first was by her hero Steve Hooker in Beijing in 2008 - after being “on the straight and narrow” for so long.

“To come here and look in the crowd and see 20, 30 or 40 of my friends and family, just people that I’ve known over life is just so special, so overwhelming,” she said.

“It was just nice to look into the stadium. It gave me peace, it gave me calm and it just gave me this energy, this belief that I could do that tonight.”