by Stuart Weir
Women’s pole vault
By clearing 4.90m Katie Moon won the world championship pole-vault in Tokyo, in the stadium where she had been Olympic champion 4 years ago. Sandi Morris jumped 4.85m for second place. Moon has become the dominant woman pole-vaulter over the past five years. Her achievements are:
2021 Olympic Champion
2022 World Champion
2023 World Champion (Joint)
2024 Olympic silver medal
2025 World Champion
In addition she has taken silver and Bronze at the world indoors and twice been Diamond League overall winner.
In last year’s Olympics Moon was second to Nina Kennedy and in 2023 shared her world title with Kennedy, who was prevented from competing by injury.
Moon had a perfect series jumping 4.45m to 4.80m but a failure at 4.85m, which her compatriot, Sandi Morris, cleared gave Morris the initiative. Moon then passed at 4.85m to have two attempts at 4.90m, knowing that failure would leave Morris the winner. Moon cleared 4.90m at the second attempt to take the lead. Morris failed twice at 4.90m and once at 4.95m, leaving Katie Moon the World Champion.
Katie Moon and Sandi Morris are fierce competitors but it was lovely to see Sandi take a moment to congratulate her rival on the 4.90m before making her own attempt. That is the way pole-vaulters respect each other in the competition.
Katie Moon said afterwards: “It was incredible, it was such a battle. I knew it was going to be. I kept telling myself I would need to jump over 4.90m to win. I knew Sandi was in a good shape. I am just happy and relieved it ended up the best for me. You never know who’s day it’s going to be. It felt amazing to have four American pole vaulters on the runway today. It feels fun watching girls getting in shape in real life. I am 34 now and I have seen several athletes come in young and blossom. It’s amazing to get to watch the twins do it, I just hope they keep still for a couple of years before they start dominating. All my medals are special but this one is the one. The older you get, it gets harder. I don’t know how many years I still have in me. To have my family here made it very special. I have full faith in my coach. He has a really good balance with knowing when to push and when to rest. I also have a good support system around me. In pole vault, as long as you stay healthy, you can jump high. It takes time to get the right technique. I love the fact that today’s medallists are all above 30. We have respect for each other”.
Sandi Morris commented: “This year I found myself again. There was a lot going on behind the scenes so I am happy to be back on the podium. I know I am still capable of getting into five-metre territory. There is a bit of disappointment, too, because I wanted to jump higher but I jumped a season’s best. I am still hungry. It is amazing for the States to have four women in the final. I believe it is the first time. I won’t be surprised if we see the Moll twins on the podium in years to come and that is very exciting . I can come and watch them when I retire! My parents have sacrificed everything to help me get to this level throughout my entire life. They gifted me their athleticism and coached me”.
Hana and Amanda Moll, the twins, Katie and Sandi referred to are just 20 and finished sixth equal with 4.65m.
