<p>No athlete had a better front-row seat to watch Katie Nageotte&rsquo;s travails this season than Sandi Morris.</p>
<p>And when Nageotte won the gold medal in the women&rsquo;s pole vault on Sunday (17) at the <strong>World Athletics Championships Oregon22</strong>, Morris was right there beside her to celebrate the victory.</p>
<p>The only catch was that meant Morris was relegated to silver medallist. Again.</p>
<p>Nageotte, the Tokyo Olympic champion, became the third athlete to win the women's world pole vault title the year after striking Olympic gold.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Morris won her third straight silver medal at the World Championships to go along with the silver she won at the Rio Olympics. That&rsquo;s four silver medals in seven years. And Morris didn&rsquo;t even get a chance to show what she could do in Tokyo last summer after snapping her pole and suffering an injury during the qualifying round.</p>
<p>&ldquo;After Tokyo, this silver medal hurts more than any,&rdquo; Morris said, &ldquo;because I was like: &lsquo;Maybe this was my turn&rsquo;. But it just was not. I am going to stand up and fight even harder next year.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Both Nageotte and Morris cleared 4.85m to share the world lead, which Morris previously held alone at 4.82m. Nageotte won the gold on countback, making the height on her first attempt with ease while Morris needed two tries.</p>
<p>&ldquo;This year has been a struggle, to say the least,&rdquo; said Nageotte, 31, who had been hampered earlier this season by a tightened achilles tendon on her take-off leg. &ldquo;I know Sandi can attest to that. There were so many times I was debating retiring. It was hard to come to the track every day and stay motivated.&rdquo;</p>
<p>The gold medal was the third for the US in the women&rsquo;s pole vault and the first since Stacy Dragila won back-to-back titles in 1999 and 2001. No country had placed two women on the podium since Poland achieved the feat in 2009.</p>
<p>Nina Kennedy of Australia had an early scare at 4.45m, finally going over on her third attempt, and went on to capture the bronze with a season's best of 4.80m. She won the first medal for Australia since Tatiana Grigorieva also took bronze in the inaugural women&rsquo;s pole vault at the 1999 World Championships.</p>
<p>Nageotte also snapped Morris&rsquo; 11-meeting winning streak &mdash; six outdoor and five indoor, including the World Indoor Championships, where Morris was the champion and Nageotte was the runner-up.</p>
<p>By that time, Morris, 31, had moved to Atlanta to train with Brad Walker, the 2007 men&rsquo;s pole vault world champion. Walker was already working with Nageotte and directed his star vaulters to practice at separate times on the runway, but together in the weight room.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Today is a little bittersweet,&rdquo; Morris said. &ldquo;I did want that gold, of course, but I&rsquo;m so happy for Katie. I watched her, being her training partner. I watched her fight through so much.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Nageotte, who had cleared only 4.65m this season prior to the World Championships, empathises with Morris&rsquo; plight. &ldquo;Sandi is disappointed with her silver and that is why she is the best,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Because I would have been disappointed with the silver, too.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Morris does have two world indoor titles, so there is some gold in her collection. However, she feels like this one slipped through her fingers.</p>
<p>Morris, whose PB is 5.00m, had a cleaner slate than Nageotte, who missed on her first attempts at both 4.70m and 4.80m. But after Morris, who had room to spare at 4.80m, needed that second try at 4.85m, the pressure was on to make 4.90m.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I knew what I had to do,&rdquo; said Morris, who looked like she thought she had it on her second attempt. &ldquo;I had really good shots at it, but at least got the season&rsquo;s best. It is hard to be disappointed at that, but it is hard to take another silver.&rdquo;</p>
<p>The field of 15 was cut by two at the first height, 4.30m, and by two more at the second, 4.45m. Only eight vaulters remained when the bar went up to 4.60m.</p>
<p>Tina Sutej of Slovenia placed fourth after clearing 4.70m, while Katerina Stefanidi, the 2016 Olympic champion from Greece, cleared the same height, which was a season's best for her.</p>
<p>Kennedy also tried to clear 4.90m. She passed her third attempt at 4.85m to go for the higher bar, but failed on her only attempt.</p>
<p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s my first major final and then obviously medal as well, so I&rsquo;m stoked,&rdquo; she said.&nbsp;</p>
<p>After placing fourth in 2014 at the World U20 Championships in Eugene, she said: &ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t going to come fourth again. So to get in the medals was incredible. It was such a packed field out there.&rdquo;</p>
<p>And she&rsquo;s also stoked to come back for more World Championships.</p>
<p>&ldquo;They&rsquo;re in their 30s, I&rsquo;m 25, so I&rsquo;m still a little baby,&rdquo; Kennedy said, &ldquo;so I think I have a few more years ahead of me.&nbsp;</p>
<p><strong>Karen Rosen for World Athletics</strong></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 75%; border-color: #ffffff; border-style: solid;" border="1" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="3">
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<td style="background-color: #fd5249; text-align: center;" colspan="3"><strong>WOMEN'S POLE VAULT MEDALLISTS</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 10%; background-color: #e9c968; text-align: center;">🥇</td>
<td style="width: 60%; background-color: #e9c968;">Katie Nageotte 🇺🇸 USA</td>
<td style="width: 30%; background-color: #e9c968;">4.85m WL</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 10%; background-color: #ced4d9; text-align: center;">🥈</td>
<td style="width: 60%; background-color: #ced4d9;">Sandi Morris 🇺🇸 USA</td>
<td style="width: 30%; background-color: #ced4d9;">4.85m WL</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 10%; background-color: #bd895e; text-align: center;">🥉</td>
<td style="width: 60%; background-color: #bd895e;">Nina Kennedy 🇦🇺 AUS</td>
<td style="width: 30%; background-color: #bd895e;">4.80m SB</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="background-color: #34495e; text-align: left;" colspan="3">&nbsp;&nbsp;<span style="text-decoration: underline; color: #ffffff;"><strong><a style="color: #ffffff;" href="https://www.worldathletics.org/competitions/world-athletics-championships/oregon22/results/women/pole-vault/final/result" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Full results</a></strong></span></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p><em>&nbsp;</em></p>

World Athletics Championships, Oregon 2022

When Nageotte won the gold medal, Morris was right there beside her to celebrate the victory

Nageotte gets gold, Morris secures silver in US pole vault 1-2 in Oregon

<p>For many people, lockdown evokes emotions of frustration and anxiety. Yet for recently-minted Australian pole vault record-holder Nina Kennedy, she credits the period last year for helping transform her career.</p>
<p>&ldquo;In hindsight, lockdown was probably one of the best things that happened to me,&rdquo; explains Kennedy. &ldquo;Lockdown gave me time to reflect. I would go on long walks and just think, what did I want to do for the rest of my sporting career? It was fine to be a 4.60m vaulter, but I wanted to be a 4.80m or 4.90m jumper and that is when I really started to hone in on those one percenters.&rdquo;&nbsp;</p>
<h3>&nbsp;No stone unturned</h3>
<p>In an effort to improve every area of her athletic life, the 24-year-old underwent two months of sleep studies with the Western Australian Institute of Sport in an effort to ensure she slept in the most efficient way to maximise her recovery. She underwent dietary changes, minimising processed foods and introducing more organic foods. And she continued to work hard with her coach, Paul Burgess, whom she joined in late 2019, to improve her strength and technical gains.&nbsp;</p>
<p>It is a combination of factors that have all played their part in enabling the 1.65m-tall vaulter to enjoy the best season of her career this year, highlighted by that fabulous world-leading (outdoor) mark and Australian record 4.82m in Sydney last month.&nbsp;</p>
<p>&ldquo;For me, lockdown was definitely a blessing in disguise,&rdquo; she adds.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Born and raised in the small Western Australian country town of Busselton, about a three-hour drive south west of Perth, Kennedy &ndash; whose mum, Gwenda, is a former Australian lightweight rowing representative &ndash; grew up as an active sport-mad youngster.&nbsp;</p>
<p>In her youth she impressed in a range of sports including hockey, tennis, basketball and netball &ndash; and excelled at gymnastics &ndash; but after begging her mum to take her to the local athletics club at the age of 11, she found her true calling.&nbsp;</p>
<p>&ldquo;I loved athletics days at school and as soon as I joined the club I found sprinting, hurdling and jumping came quite naturally to me,&rdquo; explains Kennedy.&nbsp;</p>
<p>However, her true niche was discovered after being invited to try the pole vault through her local club at the age of 12. Possessing good speed and athleticism through her gymnastics background, she enjoyed a rapid rise and as success arrived quickly so did her passion for the discipline.&nbsp;</p>
<h3>A rapid rise</h3>
<p>Fortunate to be geographically close to the powerhouse Perth-based pole vaulting squad in which many top vaulters &ndash; such as 2008 Olympic and 2009 world champion Steve Hooker, six-metre vaulter Paul Burgess (coincidentally Kennedy&rsquo;s current coach) and Alana Boyd, the former owner of the women&rsquo;s Australian pole vault record &ndash; thrived, Kennedy made rapid gains.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Aged just 14 she won the 2012 national under-16 pole vault title, setting a PB of 4.10m en route to the title. The next year she vaulted a PB of 4.31m and went into the World U18 Championships in Donetsk a clear favourite. However, she could not match the level of this performance in Ukraine and placed fifth with a best of 4.05m.&nbsp;</p>
<p>&ldquo;I went into the competition ranked No.1 but I had never competed internationally,&rdquo; she explains. &ldquo;I was thrown in the deep end. I came away fifth. It was not the best experience but definitely not the worst and I felt I learned a lot.&rdquo;&nbsp;</p>
<p>That knowledge was then put to good use just 12 months later when she placed fourth in a personal best of 4.40m at the World Athletics U20 Championships in Oregon.&nbsp;</p>
<p>In a high-class event &ndash; in which the championship record of 4.50m was equalled &ndash; she had contributed to a memorable competition and fondly recalls the experience.&nbsp;</p>
<p>&ldquo;The Juniors in Oregon was one of my favourite ever competitions,&rdquo; she explains. &ldquo;I was competing against such high-calibre athletes and was unlucky not to medal.&rdquo;&nbsp;</p>
<p><img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/607429f0d4100e6e42fff150.jpg" alt="" width="950" height="612" /><br /><em>Nina Kennedy celebrates her bronze medal at the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games&nbsp;(&copy; Getty Images)</em></p>
<p><br />If 2014 had been good, 2015 went even better for the then teenage vaulter. Competing at her home track in Perth in February she set a stunning world under-20 record of 4.59m.&nbsp;</p>
<p>The performance represented a stunning near 20cm improvement in one competition and elevated the then 17-year-old to a new stratosphere.&nbsp;</p>
<p>&ldquo;It was crazy,&rdquo; she says of the competition which had seen her clear three PBs that day &ndash; 4.43m, 4.50m and 4.59m with her third and final attempt.&nbsp;</p>
<p>&ldquo;I was in great form but I definitely didn&rsquo;t expect to jump that high,&rdquo; she adds. &ldquo;I got a bit lucky that day, I jumped a huge bar but it was definitely a standout moment in my career.&rdquo;&nbsp;</p>
<p>Later that year the then 18-year-old was selected to compete at the World Athletics Championships. The youngest competitor in the field, she no-heighted in Beijing, describing her memories of competing inside the Bird&rsquo;s Nest Stadium as a &ldquo;massive learning experience.&rdquo;&nbsp;</p>
<h3>Building pressure</h3>
<p>So much of the talented Australian&rsquo;s career had gone so well up until this point, but this was to come to an abrupt end the following year as mental health issues took a grip on the young vaulter.</p>
<p>Out of the daily structure of school life, having graduated the previous year, coupled with the pressure and demands of having to train while her friends were out having a good time &ndash; things unquestionably took a toll. Pressure was further built as she struggled to attain the automatic Olympic qualification mark in 2016, having sailed beyond it the previous year.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Failing to win selection for the Rio Olympics unquestionably had a damaging impact on her mental wellbeing and although she competed at the World U20 Championships she describes herself as &ldquo;a mess&rdquo; in Bydgoszcz and no-heighted.&nbsp;</p>
<p>&ldquo;It was by far the hardest year in my life,&rdquo; she explains of 2016. &ldquo;I was devastated to miss out on the Olympics but I was just not in a good place mentally. I battled depression and for some time I couldn&rsquo;t go to training. I spent time on anti-depressants and I saw a psychologist. For me, it wasn&rsquo;t about jumping high it was about staying happy.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p>&ldquo;Looking back, it was a terrible year but also one I wouldn&rsquo;t change either. I learned many coping strategies. It made me realise I still wanted to do the sport and I knew deep down I would bounce back one day, but at that time I wasn&rsquo;t in the right space mentally.&rdquo;&nbsp;</p>
<p>In an effort to find greater equilibrium in her life she started meditating and journaling. She learned much about herself during this period and gradually over time her mental health improved.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Returning to competition in 2017 she jumped a best of 4.55m at the Western Australian Champs in Perth and qualified for the World Athletics Championships in London. Sadly, a quad tear would deny her a chance to compete in the British capital as the mental demands of the previous year were replaced by physical challenges.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Her rollercoaster career took an upward trajectory in 2018 as the more mature vaulter bagged a PB of 4.71m in Perth in February and later that month secured the national title in Gold Coast.&nbsp;</p>
<p>The following month she finished a solid eighth with a vault of 4.60m at the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Birmingham &ndash; a performance which filled the Australian with confidence ahead of the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.&nbsp;</p>
<p>&ldquo;To go the World Indoors and compete against the top girls and finish eighth in the world after not even making the Olympic Games two years earlier was pretty cool,&rdquo; she remarks.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Unfortunately, an inflamed foot denied her the chance to train for four weeks in the countdown to the Commonwealth Games. But despite the far from ideal preparation she maintained her composure to bank bronze with a best of 4.60m.&nbsp;</p>
<p>&ldquo;I only had my first training session back from the injury after arriving in the Athletes&rsquo; Village, so to come out and jump 4.60m in front of family and friends and my home fans was such a great reward,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;It felt like all the hard work of the previous three years had paid off.&rdquo;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<h3>New heights</h3>
<p>A series of injuries which included a quad tear, hamstring tear and back issues decimated her 2019 campaign but later that year she made the decision to team up with her current coach Burgess, who also guides current Australian men&rsquo;s pole vault No.1 Kurtis Marschall.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Describing training under Burgess as &ldquo;on a completely different path&rdquo; to what she had previously experienced, the workouts have less emphasis on gymnastic work and running and far more on strength training.&nbsp;</p>
<p>&ldquo;Paul is a coach who trusts me and what I feel,&rdquo; explains Kennedy. &ldquo;He sets out a rough programme but if I feel I want to do more of this or that he really listens. We collaborate really well. He was an athlete himself so understands what I&rsquo;m going through.&rdquo;&nbsp;</p>
<p>Taking time to adjust to Burgess&rsquo; new methods, she enjoyed a solid 2020 domestic campaign &ndash; achieving a best of 4.61m &ndash; before the global pandemic struck and she went into lockdown.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Taking the time during this period to rethink her goals and ambitions, it is little surprise the Behavioural Sciences student has emerged stronger than ever during this season.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
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<p><br />Setting a PB of 4.72m (and also going beyond the automatic Olympic qualification mark of 4.70m) in Perth in mid-December, she clad a further 3cm on to this height in her home city in January.</p>
<p>Leaving her home state of Western Australia for the first time in a year to attend the Sydney Track Classic was a slightly strange experience for the young vaulter, but feeding off the &ldquo;wave of energy&rdquo; generated by competing in front of a big crowd for the first time in many months she enjoyed a dream night. Bettering her PB by 2cm with a second-time clearance at 4.77m, she next achieved a world-class clearance of 4.82m at the first time of asking to surpass Boyd&rsquo;s five-year-old Australian record of 4.81m.&nbsp;</p>
<p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;d attempted 4.82m many times this season and I&rsquo;d got so close on many occasions,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;I knew I could do it, and to pull it off with my first attempt was really special.&rdquo;&nbsp;</p>
<p>It was also ironic she was to achieve the mark using Boyd&rsquo;s old poles. In the form of her life this year, she required bigger poles to jump the heights she knew she was capable of.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Recognising that it would take longer to order the poles from the US, she contacted the now retired Boyd, who was more than happy to assist and quickly sent her old poles from Queensland to Perth.&nbsp;</p>
<p>&ldquo;It was lovely of her to do that and after I broke the national record she was one of the first people to message me,&rdquo; adds Kennedy. &ldquo;That meant a lot to me because she was one of my role models as a youngster in the sport.&rdquo;&nbsp;</p>
<p>With her next target this week the Australian Championships, Kennedy then plans to base herself in North Queensland in the countdown to the Tokyo Olympics &ndash; where she hopes she can make an impact.&nbsp;</p>
<p>&ldquo;Firstly, I would love to make the Olympic final but 4.80m won a bronze at the last Olympics and I would also love to medal. Fingers crossed I just hope it goes my way. Now I have the Aussie record, I just want to ride this wave.&rdquo;&nbsp;</p>
<p><strong>Steve Landells for World Athletics</strong></p>

For many people, lockdown evokes emotions of frustration and anxiety. Yet for recently-minted Australian pole vault record-holder Nina Kennedy, she credits the period last year for helping transform her career.

New heights reached, Kennedy is riding the wave

<p><br />There was a national record in the women&rsquo;s pole vault, one of two Tokyo Olympic automatic standards on the night. There were two national championships decided in the 5000m.</p>
<p>None of those laurels fell to Dani Stevens, but it was difficult to go past her win in the discus as the most significant performance of the Sydney Track Classic, the second of three Australian meetings forming part of the 2021 <strong>World Athletics Continental Tour Bronze</strong> meeting series.</p>
<p>Competing for just the second time in two-and-a-half years, Stevens won the event in which she has been a world championships gold and silver medallist, an Olympic fourth placegetter and a fixture in the world top 10 for more than a decade, with a throw of 63.36m.</p>
<p>This was just 14 centimetres short of the 63.50m Tokyo automatic qualifying standard, a mark she had already achieved in her only other competition since September 2018. Stevens threw 65.93m at a Sydney interclub competition in November 2019. It was the fact she was throwing at all which both thrilled her and the fans at her hometown meeting in which she was competing for the sixteenth time.</p>
<p>Back and neck injuries had threatened to end Stevens&rsquo; career just as she had enjoyed lifetime-best form through 2017 and 2018. In London in 2017 she took the silver medal at the World Championships, eight years after she had become the youngest-ever world champion in the event in Berlin in 2009. Her 69.64m in London was a career-best and she followed up with a 68.26m to win the gold medal at her home Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast in 2018.</p>
<p>But Stevens missed all of 2019 other than that low-key, late-year competition. Then, in 2020, just as Covid-19 closed world competition down and forced the postponement of the Tokyo Games, she was left unable to even lift her throwing arm after an accident in the gym, and the resulting popped disc, severely damaged a nerve. Her first priority in rehabilitation, she said, &ldquo;was to get some function back&rdquo; in her arm.</p>
<p>In a pre-meeting interview, Stevens described the competition as &ldquo;just a starting point to see where I&rsquo;m at.&rdquo; With four throws exceeding 60 metres &ndash; 61.67m, 62.81m, 60.18m and her 63.36m best &ndash; and two fouls, it seems she is in a pretty good place.</p>
<p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a good starting point to be around the Olympic qualifier in March,&rdquo; Stevens said. &ldquo;I love the feeling (of competing), I love the adrenalin, and I love throwing something a long way.&rdquo;</p>
<h3>Kennedy tops 4.82m</h3>
<p>Stevens is one of that rare breed of athlete to have won world titles at youth, junior and open levels. Though Nina Kennedy set a world junior record of 4.59m in the pole vault in 2015, her transition from outstanding junior to outstanding senior has experienced some bumps along the way.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">NATIONAL RECORD for Nina Kennedy in the pole vault. She now has six Olympic qualifiers to her name, taking it to another level tonight when narrowly missing 4.87m. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ThisIsAthletics?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ThisIsAthletics</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ContinentalTourBronze?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ContinentalTourBronze</a> <a href="https://t.co/kRQeMPhxaV">pic.twitter.com/kRQeMPhxaV</a></p>
&mdash; Athletics Australia (@AthsAust) <a href="https://twitter.com/AthsAust/status/1370678180676177921?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 13, 2021</a></blockquote>
<script src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" async=""></script>
<p>Kennedy has hit a new level of consistency now. In Sydney, she capped that improvement &ndash; for now &ndash; with a clearance at 4.82m, adding one centimetre to the national record set by Alana Boyd in 2016 a couple of months before she finished fourth in the Rio Olympic final.</p>
<p>Kennedy opened with easy clearances at 4.50m and 4.70m, had one miss before another big clearance at a personal best 4.77m, and then sailed over 4.82m first time as well. She bowed out with three good attempts at 4.87m. In her current form, Rio bronze medallist Eliza McCartney&rsquo;s Oceania record of 4.94m may not be beyond Kennedy.</p>
<p>Her coach, six-metre vaulter Paul Burgess, can certainly see more. &ldquo;It was an amazing jump,&rdquo; he said of the record leap. &ldquo;She cleared it by a lot.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Kurtis Marschall won the men&rsquo;s event with 5.75m, going out with three misses at a personal best 5.90m.</p>
<p>Riley Day burst on to the Australian scene as a teenager, winning the national sprint double at the 2018 national titles just over a month before her 18th birthday. She ran 22.93 that year, which remained her personal best until she produced a 22.77 (w: 2.0) to win the Sydney 200m. That was 0.03 under the Tokyo auto standard and should see Day into the Olympic team.</p>
<p>The men&rsquo;s and women&rsquo;s 5000m national titles were contested at the meeting. Canada&rsquo;s Doha finalist Andrea Seccafien snatched victory from Jenny Blundell at the line to win the women&rsquo;s race, 15:25.62 to 15:25.84. Blundell took the national title, however, from Izzi Batt-Doyle and Genevieve Gregson.</p>
<p>Matthew Ramsden was a more decisive winner of the men&rsquo;s title, a sub-56 second final lap taking him to the line almost two seconds clear of Brett Robinson, 13:29.99 to 13:31.97.</p>
<p>In the 100m hurdles, Liz Clay continued her run of good performance with a win in 12.88 (+1.3). Behind the Sharon Hannan-coached hurdler, the Sally Pearson-coached Hannah Jones crept ever closer to a sub-13 with 13.01.</p>
<p>Clay competed with bandaging on her shoulder, the result of a training fall earlier in the week. &ldquo;I had a huge fall,&rdquo; she told Tamsyn Manou. &ldquo;I hit my head and (skidded along) the ground.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I was probably overdue a fall,&rdquo; Clay laughed. &ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t had one in years and it&rsquo;s part and parcel of hurdling.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Doubling back from the Canberra meeting two days earlier, Nick Hough won the men&rsquo;s 110 hurdles in 13.61 ahead of Nicholas Andrews&rsquo; personal best 13.66.</p>
<p>Most of the 800m runners had also competed in Canberra. Peter Bol, who just missed the Tokyo auto standard in the national capital, was taken through 400 in 50.45 by training mate Joseph Deng, on his way to a 1:46.12 win.</p>
<p>In the women&rsquo;s race, Linden Hall, who ran the 1500m in Canberra, followed the pacemaker to build a big lead ahead of Catriona Bisset and then hung on to defy Bisset&rsquo;s late charge to win in a personal best 2:01.27. Bisset, over 10 metres down coming into the straight, was a step back in 2:01.58.</p>
<p><strong>Len Johnson for World Athletics</strong></p>

Nina Kennedy topped 4.82m to break the Australian pole vault record at the Sydney Track Classic.

Stevens returns, Kennedy breaks Australian pole vault record in Sydney

<p>The Ukrainian city of Donetsk is calling for 21 young Australians today after Athletics Australia selectors confirmed the team for the IAAF World Youth Championships in July.</p><p>Boasting 14 girls and seven boys, the Australian team includes 14 national under-18 champions, an astounding 17 representatives from the Australian Youth Olympic Festival and 15 talented graduates of the Athletics Australia under-17 development squad.</p><p>Matthew Denny, winner of six events across two different age groups at the recent Australian Junior Championships, carry’s the team’s best hope of a medal. Having achieved qualifying marks in all three heavy throws events, the 16-year-old decided to contest the Discus and Hammer in Donetsk.</p><p>Other medal hopes will come from pole vaulter Nina Kennedey and high jumpers Eleanor Patterson and Joel Baden.</p><p>“The World Youths are traditionally one of the first chances for athletes to compete for Australia, and from a high performance perspective it provides a fantastic stepping stone toward the IAAF World Junior Championships and, hopefully, future selection to the senior team,” said Sara Mulkearns, Athletics Australia junior high performance manager.</p><p>Since their inception in 1999, the IAAF World Youth Championships have proven a breeding ground for Australian talent, with Jana Rawlinson (1999), Jared Tallent (2001), Sally Pearson (2003) and Dani Samuels (2005) just some of the names to have competed at earlier editions of the meet before going on to medal-winning performances at either the Olympic Games or IAAF World Championships.</p><p>Jake Stein (gold, Decathlon), Liz Parnov (silver Pole Vault), Sarah Carli (silver, 400m Hurdles) and Monique Cilione (bronze, Javelin) were the Australian medal winners at the last IAAF World Youth Championships held in Lille. On that occasion Australia achieved an impressive 12 top-eight performances to finish 11th on the placings table from more than 150 countries.</p><p><strong>Athletics Australia for the IAAF </strong></p><p><strong>Australia’s team for Donetsk</strong></p><p>BOYS<br />400m: Samuel Baird<br />High Jump: Joel Baden<br />Pole Vault: Henri Brown<br />Long Jump: Henry Smith<br />Discus Throw: Mathew Denny<br />Hammer Throw: Mathew Denny, Costa Kousparis<br />10,000m Race Walk: Nathan Brill</p><p>GIRLS<br />400m: Molly Blakey<br />800m: Georgia Wassall<br />2000m Steeplechase: Amy McCormick<br />High Jump: Hannah Joye, Eleanor Patterson<br />Pole Vault: Nina Kennedy, Emma Phillippe<br />Long Jump: Audrey Kyriacou<br />Shot Put: Yasenaca Denicaucau, Paletina Lemi<br />Discus Throw: Yasenaca Denicaucau<br />Hammer Throw: Alexandra Hulley<br />Javelin Throw: Mackenzie Little<br />Heptathlon: Alysha Burnett, Aliyah Johnson</p>

Australia to send 21 athletes to World Youth Championships

<p>Sometime soon, maybe even by the time you are reading this, Matthew Denny is going to have a rest. The imposing young 16-year-old has certainly earned one after his exploits over the last three days in Perth.</p><p>Having flown across Australia from east to west to contest the Australian Junior Championships, the teenager from Queensland has scarcely paused to draw breath, winning six titles – three each in both the under-16 and under-18 age groups – in a three-day spell which finished on Friday (15).</p><p>In doing so, Denny clinched selection for the 2013 IAAF World Youth Championships, which will be held in the Ukrainian city of Donetsk, in the Discus, his number one event, and the Hammer.</p><p>It potentially could have been three out of three, as he also won the Shot Put but, under IAAF rules for the World Youth Championships, athletes can do only two individual events.</p><p><strong>Denny was poorly but others felt worse</strong></p><p>Ironically, Denny arrived in the Western Australia capital feeling under the weather.</p><p>“I came over here and hoped for the best to be honest,” said Denny. ” I haven’t been that well and thought it would have an effect on how I performed. Thankfully it didn’t.”</p><p>Indeed, any of his rivals with thoughts of catching him off-form soon felt decidedly worse.</p><p>Denny’s success began when he won the boy’s U18 Discus with a 66.40m throw on the first day of the Championships on Wednesday, before he rattled off three victories in the U18 Hammer Throw with 74.29m, the U20 Discus Throw with a personal best of 58.67m and the U18 Shot Put with another best of 19.39m on day two. </p><p>Returning to the thrower’s circle on Friday morning, Denny finished off his Championships with two fine wins when he won the U20 Hammer Throw with another best of 73.29m, and finally the U20 Shot Put with his fourth personal best in three days when he reached 16.92m.</p><p>“This shows that I am capable of doing something good at the World Youth Championships and hopefully again at championships in the future,” reflected Denny. </p><p>“It shows that I can cope with competing in varied conditions that I am not used to, and that gives me confidence in the long run. I am just really proud to be honest. It has been a great few days.”</p><p>Several other throwers are certain to join Denny on the plane to Donetsk July.</p><p>Alexandra Hulley (Hammer Throw), Yasenaca Denicaucau (Discus Throw) Paletina Lemi (Shot Put) and Mackenzie Little (Javelin Throw) have ensured Australia will have full representation in the women’s throws.</p><p><strong>Wassall distance double</strong></p><p>Sydney girl Georgia Wassall, also 16, completed a double in the U18 800m and 1500m, but she will have to wait to see if she will be allowed to run the longer event in Donetsk as she only has one qualifying time and Athletics Australia is asking for two.</p><p>Wassall, who ran a personal best 2:04.68 in Sydney last month, led most of the way to win a rain-drenched 800m on Thursday to win in 2:06.88 after pushing hard from the bell. </p><p>“I know that I am strong over the third-quarter and I wanted to make sure that I came into the run home with enough lead to hold on,” she said. </p><p>“It was the hardest run for me in a while to be honest. I haven’t had a feeling like that in my legs for a while and I’m so stoked that I was able to hold on. It’s what I might need to do when I go to the World Youths so to do it here is a step in the right direction.”</p><p>Wassall then won the 1500m on Friday night in 4:29.78.</p><p>In keeping with Australia’s performances in the senior ranks in recent years, there will also be solid representation in the jumps in Donetsk.</p><p>Joel Baden produced a 2.15m personal best to win the boy’s High Jump and book his place in the team while Henry Smith qualified in the Long Jump with 7.54m.</p><p>On the women’s side, Nina Kennedy, coached by Alex Parnov, moved to ninth on the Australian all-time Pole Vault list with a leap of 4.31m and Eleanor Patterson clinched automatic selection with a High Jump win at 1.86m.</p><p>By your correspondent’s unofficial count, 15 young Australians have booked themselves tickets to Ukraine by winning in Perth, and also having the required two qualifying performances (just one is required in the 3000m and multi-events). </p><p>A number of others will have to wait until next week’s official team announcement before learning whether they have received the benefit of the selectors’ discretion.&nbsp; </p><p>One or two have hopes of achieving a qualifying performance at the weekend’s Perth Track Classic or in the remained U20 events. The U18 events in Perth have already concluded but the junior titles continue to be decided until Sunday.</p><p>Indications are that Australia will select a team predominantly of field event athletes. </p><p>Just four athletes, all girls, have currently qualified automatically for track events: &nbsp;Molly Blakey in the 400m, Georgia Wassall in the 800m, Amy McCormick in the 2000m Steeplechase and Daniela Roman in the 100m Hurdles.</p><p>Nathan Brill clinched a place in the 10,000m Race Walk while Aliyah Johnson, a training partner of London 2012 Olympic Games Long Jump silver medallist Mitchell Watt, had already got a spot in the Heptathlon. The rest will compete solely on the field.</p><p><strong>Len Johnson for the IAAF</strong></p>

Denny throws out the World Youth challenge in Perth