Katie Moon has talked for years about being in the latter part of her career, but it’s going to be hard to walk away if she keeps winning.
Like on Wednesday. Moon became the first woman to win three consecutive world outdoor titles in the pole vault, doing so in Tokyo, where she won Olympic gold four years ago.
She cleared 4.90 meters for gold in a do-or-die attempt, taking the lead from former training partner Sandi Morris. Morris then missed her last attempt at 4.95.
“They’re all special, but I think the older you get, it gets harder,” Moon said. “So to be able to come in here and not just win but to jump a (4.90), I don’t know how many years of that I’ve got in me.”
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Morris, bidding for her first global outdoor title, ended up earning her fifth silver medal between the Olympics (2016) and outdoor worlds (2017, 2019, 2022).
“I’ve made it through injuries, I’ve overcome so much over the last few years, I’ve sacrificed so much just to get back to this place,” Morris said. “So, sure, it’s bittersweet, walking away with another silver. But there’s a lot worse things in the world than silver medals at the World Championships.”
Tina Sutej of Slovenia earned bronze, her first global outdoor medal, at age 36.
At 34 years old, Moon broke her own record as the oldest woman to win a world title in the event, which debuted on the program in 1999.
At the last worlds in 2023, Moon and Australian Nina Kennedy memorably shared gold rather than contest a jump-off late in the Budapest night. Kennedy missed these worlds due to a leg muscle injury.
In 2024, Moon struggled with Achilles’ tendinosis from February up to the Olympic Trials. Her worst competition of the year was right before the Paris Games. She woke up the morning of the Olympic final with a headache.
Yet she left Paris ecstatic with a silver medal (behind Kennedy), ready to move from the Atlanta area to Oklahoma, to rejoin her husband, Tulsa University assistant rowing coach Hugo Moon.
That meant she’d shift to a remote working relationship with her coach, Brad Walker.
It has worked out well. Moon won her fifth U.S. indoor title in February and her second Diamond League title in August.
She went into Tokyo tied for the best outdoor clearance this season of the World Championships field.
Moon has said she’s taking the rest of her career year by year. She’d like to make it to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, should all go well. Like it did Wednesday.
Moon, Morris ecstatic after vault gold, silver
Katie Moon scrutinizes her final jump that yielded a worlds gold in the women’s pole vault. Silver medalist Sandi Morris knew she and Moon would be “duking it out” during the final in Tokyo.
Also Wednesday, Portugal’s Isaac Nader was the surprise winner of the closest men’s 1500m in World Championships history. He outleaned Brit Jake Wightman, the 2022 World champion, by two hundredths of a second.
Nader, eliminated in the Paris Olympic semifinals, moved from fifth to first in the last 50 meters of what had been a tactical race.
The field lacked the last two Olympic gold medalists.
American Cole Hocker crossed the finish line second in his semifinal Monday but was later disqualified for jostling with another runner in the final straightaway.
Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen was eliminated in the first round Sunday, his first race of the outdoor season after being sidelined by an Achilles injury.
In Wednesday’s 3000m steeplechase, Faith Cherotich became at 21 the youngest woman to win a world title in the event.
Cherotich easily prevailed over reigning Olympic and world champion Winfred Yavi of Bahrain — 8:51.59 to 8:56.46 — to give Kenya four wins in four women’s distance races so far.
Italian Mattia Furlani, at age 20, broke Carl Lewis’ record as the youngest world outdoor champion in the men’s long jump. Furlani, who won the world indoor title in March, leaped 8.39 meters in his fifth of six attempts.
Miltiadis Tentoglou of Greece, the two-time Olympic gold medalist and reigning world champion, was 11th.
All of the favorites advanced to Friday’s finals in the men’s 400m hurdles (American Rai Benjamin, Norwegian Karsten Warholm of Norway and Brazilian Alison dos Santos, the three fastest men in history) and the women’s 400m hurdles (2023 World champion Femke Bol of the Netherlands and 2016 Olympic gold medalist Dalilah Muhammad).
All of the stars also advanced through the first round of the men’s 200m (three-time world champion Noah Lyles and Olympic gold medalist Letsile Tebogo of Botswana) and the women’s 200m (world 100m champion Melissa Jefferson-Wooden and two-time world champion Shericka Jackson of Jamaica). The semifinals are Thursday.
The World Championships continue Thursday with finals including the men’s 400m (9:10 a.m. ET) and the women’s 400m (9:24 a.m. ET, featuring Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone). Coverage begins at 6 a.m. ET on USA Network and Peacock.
Cordell Tinch was out of track for three years. Now he’s a world champion.
