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Nina Kennedy's Commonwealth Games ended in silver, short of the gold she arrived expecting, after a wind-affected women's pole vault final in Glasgow was decided on countback. New Zealand's Eliza McCartney took the title as both athletes finished with a top clearance of 4.65 metres — 30 centimetres below both of their personal bests, as reported by ABC Australia.

The final at Scotstoun Stadium never produced the duel the field had promised. The crosswind helped the sprinters, hindered the throwers, terrified the hurdlers and made life difficult for the vaulters, ABC Australia reported. Kennedy cleared the bar only three times from seven attempts. She sat out the early heights while half the eight-woman field recorded failures, and her first clearance at 4.45 metres came on the first attempt — though not with the conviction observers had come to expect. Her own assessment was understated: "Just a tricky competition."

She came to Glasgow as the defending Commonwealth champion, the reigning Olympic and world champion, and fresh from a personal-best 4.95 metres at the Monaco Diamond League meet weeks earlier — a jump ABC Australia placed fifth on the all-time list and the best in the world for women's pole vaulting in five years.

Comeback year

The Games also carried personal weight. Kennedy was named Australia's flag-bearer for the opening ceremony, an honour that had felt remote during the months she spent recovering from the hamstring tear that ended her previous season. She tore the hamstring early in April last year and, after surgery, was initially named in the Australian squad for the World Athletics Championships in September — only for a strained muscle days later to end her season. She watched from home as American rival Katie Moon won outright the world title the two had shared two years earlier.

"Whenever you have a major surgery and you're out for the whole season, there's definitely that doubt of, 'Will this get fully better and will I return to my best and better?'" she told ABC Australia. "I'm so proud of myself. Of course there were doubts, but I'm lucky enough to do this as a job and I'm pretty damn good at it. I work my arse off every day."

Kennedy, who has represented Australia for more than a decade and has broken the national women's pole vault record 10 times, said the years of struggle had taught her resilience. "I would say through those seven years of struggles, I just showed up," she said. "That taught me a lot of resilience."

Coverage comparison

ABC Australia's reporting has traced Kennedy's path to Glasgow from two directions. In the countdown to the Games, its coverage was celebratory, focusing on her record-breaking jump in Monaco, her confidence, and her stated ambition to clear five metres. "I genuinely believe that I can jump 5m, and I know if everything aligns I can do it," she said. "Project 5m is here."

A separate strand of the coverage centred on her comeback from injury. It described the fear that it might all be over — the worry that she would not defend her Commonwealth title, would not make it back to the Olympics, or that her hamstring would fail again before she had "really soaked up the last few years." That reporting emphasised the resilience she drew from her career's setbacks.

The coverage of the final itself struck a more muted, reflective tone. ABC Australia described Kennedy as a "smiling assassin" whose friendly demeanour disguises a competitor's heart, noted the "gnarly scar" from her surgery, and observed that the night "won't go down as one of the greats."

Key Claims

  • Kennedy won silver in the women's pole vault final at the Commonwealth Games; Eliza McCartney won gold on countback, as reported by ABC Australia.
  • The top clearance in the final was 4.65m, 30cm lower than both athletes' personal bests.
  • Kennedy tore her hamstring early last April and underwent surgery, sidelining her for the season.
  • She was named Australia's flag-bearer for the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony.
  • She jumped a personal-best 4.95m in Monaco, setting the Australian women's pole vault record for the 10th time.
  • She has represented Australia for more than a decade and is the reigning Olympic and world champion.
  • Her stated goal at the Commonwealth Games was to jump 5m.