Nina Kennedy has become Australia‘s first women’s pole vault champion with US Olympic Katie Moon who took up her offer to “share” the title after an epic jump off in Budapest.
Both jumpers had cleared the same height of 4.90m, an Australian record for Kennedy, before they each failed to clear three attempts at 4.95m.
Kennedy then raised the idea with her competitor, who happily accepted, prompting an outflow of tears at the world championships.
“We were out there for such a long time, we were pushing each other to the absolute limit,“ Kennedy said.
“Katie is the world champion, she is the Olympic gold medallist, I didn’t think she would want to share it. I thought we might need to keep jumping.
“But I kind of looked at her and said, ‘Hey girl you maybe wanna share this?’ and the relief you could see it on her face and you could see it on my face and it was…