The strategy of reigning Olympic champion Katerina Stefanidi throughout a fast-paced, race-against-the-clock pole vault competition: Remain cool, even though it was not easy on a sweltering day, or with shaky hands struggling to reset the bar late in the competition.
However, the Greek standout stayed calm and collected on Saturday as she outpaced two other pole vaulters to take home top honors in the second edition of the Ultimate Garden Clash, staged at their respective training facilities.
With the temperature hovering near 39°C in Athens, Stefanidi cleared a height of 4m a total of 34 times over a 30-minute span in a rare competition held during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Two-time US indoor winner Katie Nageotte cleared the bar 30 times from her training facility in Marietta, Georgia, while Commonwealth Games champion Alysha Newman of Canada had 21 clearances in Bolton, Ontario, during the showdown.
“I very much enjoyed it,” Stefanidi said.
Stefanidi was cruising along before things got a little tighter near the end.
An exhausted Stefanidi struggled to get the bar back on the holder after a miss with about three minutes to go — it kept twisting out of her hands.
However, she had a big enough lead.
“I feel it was the bar, not me — the bar’s fault,” said Stefanidi, who won Olympic gold at the 2016 Rio Games. “I didn’t expect my upper body to get this tired. I could not keep my hands steady.”
Those hands were steady enough and she nearly matched the men’s total from a competition staged in their respective backyards on May 3, when Mondo Duplantis and Renaud Lavillenie shared the victory when each had 36 clearances over a bar set at 5m.
Retired two-time Olympic champion decathlete Ashton Eaton suggested on social media that the next competition feature a jump-off between Duplantis and Lavillenie, along with Stefanidi.
“Give me three weeks and I’ll do it,” said Stefanidi, who cooled down after the event by eating a banana.
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