NANJING: France’s Marie-Julie Bonnin won the women’s pole vault at the world indoor championships in Nanjing on Saturday as US star Grant Holloway safely negotiated heats in his quest for an unprecedented third consecutive 60m hurdles title. Bonnin equaled the French record of 4.75 meters for victory in a competition held up by a technical glitch at Nanjing’s Cube. She had three failed attempts at 4.80m. “I think I managed it really well. I’m very proud and happy,” said Bonnin.

Slovenia’s Tina Sutej took silver with 4.70m on countback from Switzerland’s European champion Angelica Moser. Defending champion Molly Caudery of Britain finished fourth. After a lengthy delay as officials fixed the machinery that lifted the bar, American Gabriela Leon, Italian Elisa Molinarolo and Czech Amalie Svabikova all failed to clear 4.70m. Italian Roberta Bruni then bailed out at 4.75m, which would have been a new national record.

That left Caudery, Sutej, Moser and Bonnin in the battle for podium places. All four failed at their first attempts at 4.75m, but Bonnin went clear on her second effort to equal the national best and up the ante on her rivals. Moser was first of the quartet to log three failures. Caudery was next up and she clipped the bar on descent with her body well clear on the ascent. That left Sutej as the sole vaulter chasing Bonnin, but she also failed on her third attempt to leave Bonnin as the gold medalist.

Holloway coasts

Two-time world indoor 60m hurdles champion Holloway coasted through to the semi-finals later Saturday, with the final scheduled for 1305 GMT. Holloway will be looking to maintain a win streak that has seen him undefeated in indoor hurdles races since 2014, including all preliminaries and in combined events. Including the 55m hurdles and 60m hurdles, he has now won 92 consecutive indoor races. Should Holloway win the final, it would be a historic third successive title. American Allen Johnson did win three titles, but they were not in a row (1995, 2003, 2004).

Finals in the evening session also include world record holder Armand ‘Mondo’ Duplantis competing in the men’s pole vault and Norwegian Jakob Ingebrigtsen in the men’s 3,000m in the first part of his bid for a track double. There are also finals in the women’s triple jump and 3,000m, while both men and women compete in the 400m finals. Italy’s European champion Zaynab Dosso led qualifiers into the 60m semi-finals, winning her heat in 7.09 seconds. The final, scheduled for 1218 GMT, will close the second day’s competition in Nanjing. — AFP