WA pole vault star Nina Kennedy flexes muscles with eighth consecutive win

West Australian pole vaulter Nina Kennedy has finished a golden season with a victory in the Diamond League final in Brussels.

Kennedy, 27, took out her eighth successive competition, which included a gold medal vault at the Paris Olympic, with a 4.88m clearance at her first attempt.

Her chief rivals, American Sandi Morris, Canada’s Alysha Newman and Molly Caudery of the UK, couldn’t improve on 4.80m.

Kennedy chased one last achievement before she earns a well break as she soared tantalisingly close on her final attempt at clearing a world-leading height for 2024 of 4.95m.

Kennedy’s personal best is 4.91m, set in Zurich last year. Her best jump this season, 4.90m, was registered in the Olympic final.

It takes her to five Diamond League wins and she put up her second and third highest jumps of the season.

All up, Kennedy won 10 of 11 competitions, eight at international level.

“It was probably one of the highest-pressure environments I’ve felt,” Kennedy said.

“I’d got seven wins in a row, and I really felt like the girls were out for blood tonight. I could feel it.

“It’s the Diamond League final for a reason. We’ve worked our asses off to get here, so it’s the seven best girls in the world right now and they made me earn it.

“It’s weird. I’ve had the best, most consistent season of my whole life but haven’t jumped a personal best, so it’s a bit bittersweet. “Now I’m so ready to go home, I miss Australia so much.”

There were other big results for Australia, with Matt Denny winning a gold medal in the discuss.

Kennedy said she was inspired by Denny. Both athletes won a $US30,000 ($A45,000) prize.

Denny also went close to a personal best, throwing 69.96m, so close to breaking the 70m barrier for the first time.

It followed a bronze medal in Paris.

“I thought that 70m was on the cards tonight but you never know with changing conditions,” Denny, 28, said, after he had broken the the 40-year-old meet record.

High jumper Nicola Olyslagers took a silver medal on Friday’s opening night, it meant four Australians finished on the podium, equalling the country’s best-ever performance in the season-long Diamond League series.

“That caps it off perfectly,” the 27-year-old Hull said of her fantastic season in which she also broke the 2,000m world record.

“The best finish in a Diamond League final to cap off a year that I kept surprising myself in.”

Olympic silver medallist Jess Hull ran into a bronze medal in the 1500m final, behind 30-year-old Kenyan Faith Kipyegon, the winner in Paris who has not lost over the distance since 2021.

Kipyegon stopped the clock at three minutes 54.75 seconds, with Ethiopian Diribe Welteji second in 3:55.25 and Hull next in 3.56.99.

Canberra’s Georgia Griffith finished sixth with a PB of 3:58.40.

Sydney’s Mackenzie Little was fifth in the javelin with a throw of 61.50m.

That final was won by the Japanese Olympic champion Haruka Kitaguchi with 66.13m on her last attempt.

NINA’S AMAZING YEAR

• September 14: Diamond League final, Brussels — 1st (4.88m)
• September 4: Diamond League, Zurich — 1st (4.87m)
• August 30: Golden Gala, Rome — 1st (4.83m)
• August 7: Olympic Games final, Paris — 1st (4.90m)
• July 20: Diamond League, London — 1st (4.85m)
• July 12: Diamond League, Monaco — 1st (4.88m)
• July 4: International meet, Sotteville — 1st (4.75m)
• June 18: Paavo Nurmi Games, Turku — 1st (4.80m)