As expected, the men’s Pole Vault Final turned out to be an exciting duel between USA’s Sam Kendricks United States and young European Champion, Armand Duplantis at the 2019 World Championships in Doha.
Before coming to Doha, both athletes had cleared 6.00m this season, with Kendricks jumping an American Record and World Leading (WL) mark of 6.06m in Des Moines this year. So it was nicely set for an interesting contest.
Kendricks and Duplantis both went clear of 5.97m barrier on their third attempts and inevitably had to raise the bar over 6m. The two couldn’t get past 6.02m, which worked in Kendricks’ favour as he successfully defended his World Pole Vault title, because he had a first time clearance at 5.92m. Duplantis on his part needed all three attempts to jump that height.
With the win, the American became the second man ever to successfully defend the men’s Pole Vault world title, after the great Sergey Bubka.
In the women’s Javelin, it got livened up as Australia’s Kelsey Lee-Barber who had surpassed 67m prior to the championships, sprung up from fifth into first, becoming the World Champion with a throw of 66.56m, a mark she threw on her last attempt.
Chinese athlete, Shiying Liu also edged past her compatriot, Huihui Lyu who had been so dominant before the championships, throwing a Season’s Best (SB) of 65.88m to get Silver. Lyu got the Bronze with a fifth round 65.49m, just past the European Champion Christin Hussong who threw 65.21m on her final attempt.
