USA’s Katie Moon leapt to gold in Tokyo on Wednesday in a thrilling final to become the first woman to win three successive pole vault titles at the World Athletics Championships.
Moon has fond memories of Japan – she won gold at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. This time she edged out compatriot Sandi Morris with a final successful leap at a season’s best 4.90m.
Morris, a silver medalist at the 2016 Olympics in Rio, placed second on 4.85m, while Slovenia’s Tina Sutej took bronze at 4.80m. Morris has now finished second in four world championships, as she searches for her first outdoor world title.
The 34-year-old Moon is the oldest woman to win a world championship pole vault title. She has said she has ambitions of competing in a home Olympics, at the 2028 Los Angeles Games, but admitted competing at the highest level is getting tougher.
“They’re all special, but I think the older you get, it gets harder,” Moon said on Wednesday. “So to be able to come in here and not just win but to jump [4.90m], I don’t know how many years of that I’ve got in me.”
Morris, meanwhile, said she had mixed feelings about another silver medal.
“I’ve made it through injuries, I’ve overcome so much over the last few years, I’ve sacrificed so much just to get back to this place,” Morris said. “So, sure, it’s bittersweet, walking away with another silver. But there’s a lot worse things in the world than silver medals at the world championships.”
The contest for gold looked to be between Moon and Morris from the early stages, the two Americans being alone in clearing the first three heights up to 4.75m on their first attempts. Only two others in the field eventually cleared the height.
Morris gave Moon a run for her money in the absence of Australia’s Nina Kennedy, the Paris Olympic gold medallist who had pulled out days before the worlds due to a leg injury. Kennedy had shared the last world championship gold with Moon in Budapest.
With the first four heights cleared at the first attempt, Moon got the first edge on Morris, only to have the tables turned when Morris raised the bar to 4.85m and cleared at the first attempt.
After failing on her first attempt at that height, Moon went all or nothing by taking her next attempt at 4.90m, which she managed on her final attempt. Morris failed twice at 4.90m, and then with a last hail-mary attempt at 4.95m, to end up second yet again.
Moon had an attempt at the 5.01m championship record set by Russia’s Yelena Isinbayeva in 2005, but ran through and decided to celebrate the win.
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