Great Britain’s Holly Bradshaw won a surprise bronze medal in the Olympic pole vault competition behind the United States’ gold medal winner Katie Nageotte and Anzhelika Sidorova.
Bradshaw, 29, the British record holder, managed a first-time clearance at 4.85m which was enough to secure the bronze medal despite three failures at 4.90m. It marked her first medal outdoors at a global championships in nine attempts. The Rio 2016 champion, Katerina Stefanidi, finished fourth after two failures at 4.85m and one at 4.90m.
Bradshaw told the BBC: “This is what I’ve worked for my whole career. “I don’t know what emotion I’m feeling: relief, pure enjoyment, excited, proud of myself for sticking with it. I knew I could get there one day.
“It was a tricky competition, it was a constant headwind. My experience kicked in, I kept my nerve, had a bit of a wobble at 4.70 but cleared it and it was just that experience that played out today.
“It’s still not really sunk in. I knew I could come in and deliver a medal-winning performance but I really felt like I was ranked fifth coming in. I knew I had to dig something out and I really feel like I did, I earned that medal and I’m really proud of myself and all of my team for just sticking with me.”
Nageotte’s gold, ahead of the world champion Sidorova of Russia, was also a surprise. The American failed on her first two attempts of the competition at 4.50m but improved from there to clinch her first major medal.
Sidorova took the silver at 4.85 with Bradshaw in third. Nageotte cleared 4.90m at her third attempt in the medal-clinching round. Sidorova passed on her last chance at 4.90m and moved the bar to 4.95m but did not come close to clearing that.
Sidorova’s silver was the first medal in track and field at the Tokyo Games for the Russian Olympic Committee team.