00:00As she sprayed her pole with black goop and then rubbed her hand all over it,
00:04you could tell Nina Kennedy was nervous. The competitors had already been pole
00:07vaulting for nearly three hours, and now with the bar set at 4m 90cm, it was going to be the
00:13highest pole vault she'd ever attempted. But if she could do it, she'd break her own Australian
00:18record for a second time in the night and potentially take home the gold medal.
00:23After applying the grip spray, she lifted the pole, attacked the bar,
00:26launched herself higher than she ever had before, and...
00:30Yes! Oh yes! We may well have to see the gold medal winning vault!
00:35But she hadn't secured the medal just yet, because now it was the world champion from the USA,
00:40Katie Moon's turn. And with her personal best already 5cm higher than this vault,
00:45she was confident that she could match Nina's national record. Although, as Katie planted her
00:50pole in the vault box and launched herself up and over, she bumped the bar with her leg on the
00:55way up,
00:56and then again with her chest on the way down. The bar wobbled, but it didn't fall. Now,
01:02Nina Kennedy was really nervous. The bar would be raised another 5cm, and Nina would now have to
01:07beat the world champion's personal best if she wanted to keep the gold to herself.
01:12Her first attempt was close, but she just couldn't quite get there. Katie's first attempt was even
01:17better. She cleared the bar with her legs, but couldn't get her upper body across. On their second
01:21attempts, Nina had to bail out early and Katie failed terribly too. The athletes were clearly
01:27exhausted. So it wasn't really a surprise when they both failed yet again on their third vault.
01:32They were completely inseparable. And when a pole vault competition reaches a deadlock like this,
01:37the rules allow for one of two possible solutions. The standard solution is that the vaulters continue
01:42with a sudden death jump off, where they attempt the same height again and then the bar is either
01:47lowered or raised until one vaulter succeeds and the other fails. And as Nina approached Katie to
01:52discuss what to do, it seemed like that's what would happen. Until Katie continued. Because the
02:00second solution is that they share the win, awarding both athletes a gold medal. After triple
02:04checking with each other, they agreed, and Nina Kennedy joined Katie Moon as joint pole vaulting world
02:10champions.
