KENNEDY AND BURGESS HONOURED AT ATHLETICS AUSTRALIA AWARDS
Published Thu 11 Jan 2024
A spectacular year for WA Pole Vault has been capped off with a slew of wins at the 2023 Athletics Australia Awards with Nina Kennedy and Paul Burgess both collecting awards.
World Champion Nina Kennedy claimed top honours and was awarded the coveted Bruce McAvaney Award for the Performance of the Year and Marjorie Jackson Award for Female Able Bodied Athlete of the Year. While WAIS Pole Vault Head Coach Paul Burgess was crowned Coach of the Year for the second consecutive year after coaching Kennedy to world gold and Kurtis Marschall to bronze.
Kennedy was selected by McAvaney after a standout year for both the athlete and the sport, with the duo catching up at the WA Athletics Stadium at the end of the 2023 to reflect on her inaugural World Championship.
“It feels like it was a long time ago now, but I remember how nervous I was feeling beforehand. The atmosphere was incredible. It was so amazing, but I had this weird laser focus on the night where all I could see were my coaches and the pole vault pit – and that’s all I was thinking about,” Kennedy said.
“There are very few opportunities where you get to attempt those heights, so I think something that’s really helped me was visualising the competition on that day. I visualised the bar being at 4.90m, and in my head, I had felt that feeling of clearing it, and I felt that feeling of winning previously.”
In a grueling competition lasting almost three hours, Kennedy twice broke her own Australian record, at 4.85m and a last-attempt effort at 4.90m. While Moon responded with clearances to match, the two competitors were locked with three unsuccessful attempts at 4.95m, when the two agreed to share the glory.
“Katie [Moon] is a fierce competitor, and I felt honoured to share the gold medal with her. She’s an outright Olympic champ, and she does have a higher personal best than me (4.95m), but I feel confident that I can take her on when we’re in the same competition, so I’m looking forward to Paris.”
Speaking to Athletics Australia, McAvaney said that Kennedy’s World Championship performance was his favourite of the year, even as the calibre of Australian sporting achievements continues to increase.
“In an outstanding year for Australian athletics with so many national records broken, it should have been difficult to choose, but the standout performance was Nina Kennedy winning gold in the Women’s Pole Vault at the World Athletics Championships,” McAvaney said.
“Nina’s battle with the Olympic champion was one for the ages. It brought out the absolute best in two stunning performers. The event concluded with two proud women, absolutely spent, leaving it all out on the field, and Nina’s performance will live in the memories for a long time to come. It was sportsmanship at its best.”
For the second consecutive year, WAIS Pole Vault Head Coach Paul Burgess has been crowned Coach of the Year at the 2023 Athletics Australia Awards, with the three-time Olympian being rewarded for his coaching techniques which have seen his leading athletes to clinching several medals on the international stage.
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Reporting by Athletics Australia
By Dylan Gane, Athletics West
Posted on 11 January 2024
