Agencies
MUMBAI, Jan 18: Katie Moon of USA believes that her gesture to share pole vault gold with Australia's Nina Kennedy during last year's World Athletics Championships was born out of an innate feeling of relatedness, and it did not require a pre-existing bond.
Both Moon, a Tokyo Olympics gold winner, and Kennedy cleared 4.90m but missed all three attempts at 4.95m after a draining two hours and 10 minutes contest. They could have gone to a jump-off but decided to share the gold in Budapest in August 2023.
"That (a prior relationship) makes it easier. If you genuinely like the person that you're competing against, it is easier to want to share with them, but it's not a requirement," Moon, who is the brand ambassador of the Tata Mumbai Marathon to be held here on January 21, told PTI in an exclusive interview.
"It really just comes down to how you're feeling on the day, how they're feeling on the day, what both of your gut reactions are telling you (in terms of) what's right," she said. .
"It makes it a little bit easier to make that decision if you know them and are friends with them, but it's not a requirement," Moon added.
Moon said she sensed fatigue and the final jump mark of 4.95m given by the officials pushed them to decide on sharing the medal.
"When we were jumping, I honestly forgot that you could share - that was not on my radar. As we were competing and jumping more and more, I just knew how tired I was getting," she said. .
"When it finally finished, I walked up to the official and said, 'okay, so what happens now?' He said, 'you get one more attempt at 4.95m'. Nina walked up and said, 'okay, so what happens? I said, 'okay, we jump at 4.95m'," Moon recalled.
"She just looked a little hesitant. That's when it clicked for me, like, 'oh wait, we can share (the medal)'. I knew immediately that I wanted to do that," she said.
Moon expressed happiness that they decided to share the medal and emulate Italy's Gianmarco Tamberi and Qatar's Mutaz Barshim who shared the high-jump gold at the Tokyo Olympics.
"When she looked a little hesitant, I said 'unless we both want to take it' and she said 'like share?' And I was like 'yeah'," Moon said.
"Every time we spoke, you could see the relief on our faces and we both knew that is absolutely what we wanted to do and I'm very happy that we chose to do that," she said. |
