Sweden's Angelica Bengtsson on the Pole Vault runway (© Getty Images)
Angelica Bengtsson added the World Junior gold medal to her World Youth title of last year as a clearance at 4.25 turned out to be enough for the win in windy conditions here in Moncton.
The World season leader at 4.47, Bengtsson seemed to be struggling from the very early stages of the competition today her first failure coming as early as 4.05. She set the record straight with a first time clearance at the next height 4.15, at which moment the medals were already decided albeit not their order of distribution.
In fact the only other athlete to go clear at 4.15 was Holly Bleasdale of Great Britain, her second round clearance meaning she was in silver medal position at that stage.
But it wasn’t meant to last long, Victoria Von Eynatten of Germany having saved her best for the next height of 4.20 after her sole miss at 4.15. The German was even briefly in the gold medal seat given that Bengtsson, obviously not in the best shape tonight, failed the first time of asking at 4.20.
The Swedish champion couldn’t let the title slip from her hands at such a poor level and she regrouped for a massive second time clearance which she backed up with an even clearer jump at 4.25.
Bleasdale meanwhile missed twice at 4.20 and in a desperate attempt to get back into the leading position passed to 4.25, a height she wouldn’t master on the day.
Von Eynatten applied the same tactics after missing at 4.25 and once again 4.30 was too much to ask. She had to settle for silver at 4.20. Bleasdale’s 4.15 meant she had the bronze.
Bengtsson was all smiles when she attempted 4.30, her god medal already secured but one could tell that she wasn’t at the top of her game all three of her attempts at a height she already cleared in four competitions this year being aborted jumps.
