National Title and World Youth Qualifier for Kennedy

Published On: 13 March 2013

Nina Kennedy reacts after clearing 4.31m - a Youth World qualifier and huge personal best

WAIS junior pole vaulter Nina Kennedy has won the U18 national title in Perth with a massive clearance of 4.31m to earn selection for this year’s World Youth Championships in Donetsk, Ukraine.

Once again battling it out with her WAIS training partnerEmmaPhillippe(WA, second 4.00m) and Victorian championMadelineLawson(Vic, third, 3.70m), Kennedy entered the competition at 3.80m and soared all the way to an impressive 4.31m to take gold and a list of records with her.

A competition meet record and personal best, Kennedy, who is just 15 years old, now sits second on the Australian rankings for 2013 and ninth on the Australian All-Time List.

“I am so happy with that. I have no idea how I took my PB to that high today. I was aiming for 4.25m today and wanted to come away with that, but then I had the chance to try and jump a bit higher so I took out a bigger pole and just went for it,” Kennedy said.

“It’s exciting to know that the World Youths will now happen. I have no idea what the next few months will look like in terms of preparation, but I guess it will just be lots of training. We’ll see what happens. I’m so looking forward to it.”

There was more good news for another Western Australian competing in front of a home crowd with Amy McCormick crossing the line below the required 6:40.00 to add a third qualifier to her previous two in the girl’s 2000m steeplechase. McCormick’s performance of 6:39.58 ensured her first national crown at the Australian Junior Athletics Championships and was a mere one second shy of her personal best set in Perth earlier this year.

McCormick is the first Western Australian to compete in a track event at the IAAF World Youth Championships sinceMichaelMcCaghplaced sixth in the boy’s 10,000m walk in Sherbrooke (CAN) in 2003.

HannahGibson(NSW, 6:53.48) andHollyAnderson(Qld, 7:14.13) joined McCormick on the podium by placing second and third respectively.

Kennedy and McCormick are joined on the automatically selected list by;MathewDenny(Qld, discus),AlexHulley(NSW, hammer throw),PaletinaLemi(NSW, shot put), high jumperEleanorPatterson(Vic), long jumperHenrySmith(Vic) and race walkerNathanBrill(Vic).

– Athletics Australia