Women's Pole Vault Finals Commonwealth Games 2022

Nina Kennedy has restored Australian supremacy in the Commonwealth Games women’s pole vault with a dominant display in Birmingham.

Two weeks after hanging tough to win the bronze medal at the world championships in Eugene, Oregon, USA, Kennedy did it much easier at Alexander Stadium.

Her winning height of 4.60m was 20cm less than what was required to claim third spot at the world titles.

Australians have now won the women’s pole vault on six of the seven occasions it has been competing at the Commonwealth Games, a sequence broken only when Canadian Alysha Newman won four years ago, ironically, on the Gold Coast.

Newman was forced to pull out of the 2022 Commonwealth Games Competition early because of a leg injury.

Tokyo’s Olympics bronze medalist Holly Bradshaw from England also withdrew from the competition due to injuries she suffered at the world championship in Eugene, Oregon when her pole snapped in mid-vault. There was no-one left in the field with a personal best anywhere near Kennedy’s 4.82m.

It was pretty much as they would say a one-horse race, and so it proved.

Kennedy seemed very confident when she cleared 4.50m; that was more than enough to clinch the gold medal, but she kept jumping. She soared over 4.60m on her second attempt.

To the delight of the crowd, Kennedy defied tricky windy conditions to then have three unsuccessful cracks at what would have been a new Commonwealth record of 4.76m.

Molly Caudery from England claimed the silver on countback ahead of New Zealand’s Imogen Ayris after both cleared 4.45m.