It was a strong afternoon for Team USA, as Katie Nageotte and Sandi Morris finished with the gold and silver, respectively, after both making 15 feet, 11 inches in the women’s pole vault finals of the World Athletics Championships.
Nageotte, the reigning Olympic champion, hit the mark on her first try. Morris made it on her second attempt. Both attempted to hit 16-0.75 as the next mark but failed three times.
In third place was Australia’s Nina Kennedy, who finished with 15-9.
Gabriela Leon was the other USA representative in the finals, finishing with a mark of 14-1.25.
Nageotte was not able to compete against any of her fellow Olympic medalists from Tokyo in the event. Anzhelika Sidorova, like all Russian athletes, was not allowed to compete in the world championships due to the country’s invasion of Ukraine.
Holly Bradshaw of the United Kingdom, who placed bronze in Tokyo, was registered to compete but did not make an attempt in the preliminaries.
— Nik Streng, nstreng@oregonian.com, @NikStreng