Olympic champion Nina Kennedy and Molly Caudery are set for a fascinating Commonwealth Games showdown after the Australian pole vaulter had to settle for silver at a Diamond League meet in Rome.
Kennedy, the reigning Commonwealth Games champion who also won gold at the Paris Olympics, produced a season-best leap of 4.80m last week in Morocco.
That eye-catching performance marked Kennedy's first Diamond League outing in 18 months, with hamstring injuries having ruined her 2025.
The West Australian continued her impressive form in Rome, completing first-attempt clearances at both 4.70m and 4.80m.
But misses at 4.60m proved costly as English rival Caudery clinched the gold medal on countback.
"I had a bit of a stumble early. Some pole vault set-ups can be quite different and you have to align the variables to make the perfect jump," Kennedy said.
"I was having a bit of trouble out there today, but I was clutch on the third attempt (at 4.60m) and I continued on."
The 29-year-old will now return home to Perth and ramp up her preparations for the Commonwealth Games, which begin on July 23.
Meanwhile, Australian middle-distance runners Peyton Craig and Linden Hall both clocked personal bests in Rome.
The 21-year-old Craig (1:44.01) stormed home in the final straight to finish fourth in the men’s 800m, rising to third on the Australian all-time list.
Three-time Olympian Hall lowered her 5000m time to 14:40.81 for 15th place in a field where Ethiopia had the first seven women across the line.
Elsewhere in the Italian capital on Thursday (Friday AEST), Olympic champion Noah Lyles made a winning start to his Diamond League campaign in the men's 100m.
The American made his standard slow start from the blocks, but stormed to the line in a time of 9.88 seconds to finish ahead of Emmanuel Eseme and Olympic 200m champion Letsile Tebogo.
"10 metres before the finish line I knew the race was over and I had already won it. I was thinking about how I was going to celebrate it," Lyles gloated.
"I can go again. Who wants to go?"
St Lucia's Julien Alfred and American Melissa Jefferson-Wooden have dominated women's sprinting of late, but Alfred pulled away with ease and posted a time of 21.93 in the 200m, with Jefferson-Wooden trailing in 22.17 seconds.
Likina Amebaw won the women's 5000m, leading home an Ethiopian 1-2-3, Norway's Henriette Jaeger took victory in the women's 400m and American Trey Cunningham won the men's 110m hurdles in a personal best time of 12.98 seconds.
The series will continue in Stockholm on Sunday.
With Reuters.
