Nina Kennedy’s Commonwealth Games pole vault silver a reminder that even the greats can stumble

That’s not how this was meant to go.

When Nina Kennedy steps into an athletics enviornment, the expectation is gold, and he or she carries herself accordingly.

The definition of a smiling murderer, Kennedy’s pleasant manner disguises a competitor’s coronary heart that beats with propulsive drive.

It launches her down the runway and, often, to nice heights.

In Glasgow, Kennedy fell wanting her personal lofty objectives and the requirements we have come to count on from her, however nonetheless got here away with silver within the ladies’s pole vault last, albeit in a last that will not go down as one of many greats.

Tailwinds at Scotstoun Stadium have been serving to the sprinters, hindering the throwers, terrifying the hurdlers, and on Friday evening, native time, making life troublesome for the vaulters.

The crosswind stored the ultimate from being a real jump-off between the robust subject, with Kennedy clearing the bar solely thrice from seven makes an attempt and 2016 Olympic bronze medallist Eliza McCartney profitable on countback.

The prime clearance of 4.65 metres by the gold and silver medallists was 30 centimetres decrease than each of their private bests.

Kennedy topped by 1-centimetre McCartney’s eight-year-old Oceania report of 4.94m simply a few weeks earlier than the Commonwealth Games started.

So, regardless of sporting a fairly gnarly scar from final yr’s hamstring surgical procedure, there isn’t any query Kennedy was match and in kind.

She carried her typical power into the ultimate, sitting out the early heights and ready within the tall grass for her likelihood to pounce as soon as half her opponents had already X’d out.

By the time she acquired out of her thick coat and stood on the prime of the runway, piercing blue eyes fastened on her first try at 4.45m, half the eight-woman subject was already gone.

She acquired over on her first go, however not with the form of convincing clearance over the bar we have been used to seeing.

Conserving power? Shaking off the chilly? No, because it turned out. Just a difficult competitors.

New Zealander Olivia McTaggart stumbled at that hurdle thrice, assuring Kennedy of a medal — and most probably silver no less than after 2022 bronze medallist Imogen Ayris took three tries to clear 4.30m — however minor medals are usually not what Kennedy got here right here for.

The 29-year-old has been in Glasgow so long as any of Australia’s 255-strong workforce, having arrived early to hold the flag within the opening ceremony.

She has been so ever-present across the workforce that her success feels much more inevitable than ordinary, particularly for folk who might have solely watched her soar at Commonwealth Games, worlds and Olympics.

In these competitions, she had gone gold, gold, gold since her breakthrough win in Birmingham.

But so many issues must go proper for an athlete to constantly catapult themselves 5 metres into the air with the accuracy and management required, and typically the items simply do not fairly match.

By the time she was getting ready for her third try at 4.70m, the stare now not appeared so steely.

Having missed three of her final 4 jumps to that time, it did not really feel like a foregone conclusion that she’d pull it out within the clutch but once more, and so it proved.

“Of course I’m disappointed, I wanted to win, and I didn’t,” she mentioned, emphasising that she was “genuinely really happy” to see veteran McCartney win her first main worldwide gold.

“I’m superhuman most of the time, but I’m also human a lot of the time, and I make mistakes, and that’s OK.

“I’m a excessive achiever, and I push myself to be that, however I feel it is also essential to recollect I’m human and I make errors. I did not wish to make errors on the market tonight, however I did, and that is OK.”

The epitome of a big-moment performer, Kennedy has now not been able to defend her 2023 world or 2022 Commonwealth Games titles.

She missed the 2025 athletics world championships due to her torn hamstring and missed the mark in Glasgow, however outcomes aren’t all that matter for a lady who has ticked off each profession objective at this level.

She said before the opening ceremony that she would probably forget to soak in the moment as the team’s flag-bearer, but after a long campaign and a surprisingly short time on centre stage, it seems she has figured it out.

“Sometimes sport is extra than simply the medals, it is in regards to the reminiscences made and the connections and the officers and the volunteers,” she mentioned.

“The crowd on the market was so superior. Everyone was simply so pleased to be right here. I’m strolling away with quite a lot of reminiscences.

“I’m happy. Like, I’m sad, but I’m happy.”