The two women completely dominated the evening at the athletics stadium in Budapest. They put on a nerve-wracking fight of the first category. It already looked like the favored American had the Australian on her back. But the 26-year-old woman from Western Australia miraculously recovered several times and broke the Australian record twice.
And so both rivals ended up at the same height of 490 cm with the same number of attempts. They could continue to fight for first place at reduced heights. But Moon came to Kennedy and after a short debate offered her a split gold. Kennedy agreed, and so the two women shared the biggest World Cup trophy.
The two are normally thousands of kilometers apart. They live in other parts of the planet, Nina is six years younger and less experienced in athletics, and they haven’t met so many times on the world’s athletic courts.
26-year-old Kennedy has now broken the national Australian record twice. Until yesterday, she wasn’t a “wonder” but she wasn’t an athletic superstar either. She competed at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and won gold at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
She started athletics when she was 11. A year later she tried the pole. In 2012, aged 14, Kennedy finished second at the Australian Senior Pole Vault Championships with a personal best of 4.10 metres. A year later, she cleared 4.31 meters and placed fifth at the U18 World Youth Championships. At the 2014 IAAF World Junior Championships, she cleared a personal best of 4.40 meters and finished fourth.
In four years, Kennedy increased her personal best to 4.60 meters and a week later she moved to 4.71 meters. At the 2022 World Championships in Athletics, Kennedy won bronze with a 4.80m performance and is now in the running for gold after a huge battle.
The 32-year-old Moon already has more big trophies. She won a gold medal at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, the 2022 World Championships in Athletics and also a silver medal at the 2022 World Indoor Championships.
Katie first enjoyed jumping into the water, and at the age of nine she was already doing gymnastics at the famous sports high school Olmsted Falls in Ohio. This laid the perfect foundation for the stick.
She finished school with the Ohio record in her category – 3.97m – and continued to improve after that. But her career did not resemble a comet. She went up step by step. She broke through at the international level only at the age of 27. And she really took off only two years ago at the Olympics in Tokyo. Unusual in today’s fast-paced times. And Nina Kennedy seems to be following in her footsteps.
Yesterday’s moment from Budapest saw Qatar’s Mutaz Essa Barshim and Italy’s Gianmarco Tamberi share high jump gold at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
“When the finals started, I didn’t think that sharing the gold medal would benefit me, but now I’m completely satisfied,” said Moon. “What a battle it was. What an amazing night. I hope everyone enjoyed it. We do.”
Kennedy appeared even more delighted, describing the gold medal as a dream come true. “I literally jumped out of my skin tonight. It was absolutely insane. I felt like the whole stadium was watching our every single jump, it was really incredible.”
