Alkass Digital
Doha, Qatar: Olympic and world pole vault champion Katie Moon (USA) will take on fellow world champion Nina Kennedy (AUS) and newly-crowned world indoor champion Molly Caudery (GBR) at the Seashore Group Doha Diamond League Meeting at the Qatar Sports Club on May 10.
Moon - ranked fifth all-time with a best height of 4.95m - famously shared global gold with Commonwealth champion and Australian record holder Kennedy (4.91m) at the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest after an enthralling contest failed to separate them. They were subsequently shortlisted for the 2023 International Fair Play Award as a result of their actions.
“The women’s pole vault has really progressed over the last few years and it’s exciting to be able to compete alongside such a talented group of athletes,” said 2023 Wanda Diamond League champion Moon who finished third at the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Glasgow.
“I had a frustrating build-up to the World Indoors due to an Achilles injury, but I was so happy to walk away with some hardware for the US. Now I’m looking forward to building back up for the outdoors and to returning to Doha where I opened my season with a victory last year.”
Caudery, who finished fifth in Budapest, has been exceptional in 2024 and is the current world laeader with a best of 4.86m. A Commonwealth Games silver medallist in Birmingham (2022), she won her first global title – and Britain’s first world indoor gold in a field event since 2012 – in Glasgow with a 4.80m clearance.
“Last year was literally a dream come true, so to kick off this Olympic year as a world indoor champion makes me so grateful and excited for what’s to come,” said the 23-year-old who has improved her lifetime best by 26cm in the past year and has her sights set on the British record (4.90m). “This will be my first time competing in Doha and I can’t wait to get my outdoor season started. I’m loving absolutely every single moment of this journey.”
Moon, Kennedy and Caudery will be joined at the Qatar Sports Club by Finland’s national record holder Wilma Murto (4.85m), world bronze medallist in Budapest and fifth in the Tokyo Olympic Games; USA’s 2016 Olympic silver medallist Sandi Morris (PB 5.00m), a three-time world silver medallist and double world indoor champion; Slovenia’s national record holder Tina Šutej (4.82m), fourth in the 2023 World Championships and fifth in the Olympics; and USA’s Bridget Williams (PB 4.83m), the 2023 Pan American Games champion.
The Seashore Group Doha Meeting is the third meeting of the 2024 Wanda Diamond League. The series comprises 15 meetings in total across four different continents, starting with Xiamen on 20 April and concluding with a single final across two days in Brussels (13-14 September). Each of the 14 series meetings will be broadcast globally in a live two-hour programme.