Olympic pole vault champion, Nina Kennedy, made a successful comeback this Saturday in Melbourne. Sprinter Lachlan Kennedy beat his young compatriot Gout Gout in the half-lap race.
Olympic pole vault champion from Paris 2024, Nina Kennedy, made a triumphant return on Saturday in her home country, Melbourne, winning a competition after missing the entire 2025 season due to a hamstring injury.
The 28-year-old athlete cleared a bar at 4.72 meters, despite a three-quarter reduced run-up to gradually restart. She outperformed American twin sisters Hana Moll (4.46m) and Amanda Moll (4.36m).
World champion in 2023 before her Olympic gold medal, Kennedy had to pull out of the September 2025 World Championships due to a muscle tear but then expressed her ambition to compete until the 2028 LA Olympics. Her confessed dream is to break Russian Yelena Isinbayeva’s world record (5.06m). Her personal best is 4.91m indoors.
In the same meeting, Australian Claudia Hollingsworth caused an upset on the 1500m by beating British Georgia Hunter Bell, who was the reigning indoor world champion over the distance last Sunday in Poland. Bell, following Hollingsworth closely in the final turn, attacked in the straight, but failed to overtake. Hollingworth won in 4 minutes 1 second and 30/100th.
Lachlan Kennedy Faster than Gout Gout
In the men’s 200 meters, 18-year-old prodigy Gout Gout was narrowly beaten by his Australian compatriot Lachlan Kennedy, who ran in 20.38 seconds. Gout Gout made headlines in 2024 by running the 200m in 20.04 seconds at the Australian School Athletics Championships, setting the fastest time ever recorded by a 16-year-old athlete, earning him comparisons to Usain Bolt.
In the 400 meters, American Jacory Patterson set the best time of the year in 44.41 seconds for his first 400m of the year.
