New Personal Best for Kurtis Marschall

Commonwealth Champion Kurtis Marschall has reached new heights after setting a personal best at the Zurich Diamond League on Wednesday night.

The 21 year-old moves into fifth on the all-time Australian record list with his new mark of 5.86m the best jump by an Australian in seven years. He will hope to emulate the feats of Western Australian pole vault legends Paul Burgess and Steve Hooker in clearing the magical six metre barrier before his career is done.

The men’s pole vault was hosted as a standalone exhibition event within a Zurich train station, one day ahead of the full competition schedule on Thursday night.

With the world’s best in attendance, Kurtis Marschall cleared 5.86m to take third place, ahead of current World Champion Sam Kendricks (USA) and current world record holder Renaud Lavillenie (FRA).

Marschall entered competition with an existing personal best of 5.80m. He cleared his opening height of 5.56m at the first time of asking and then needed a second jump to go over at 5.71m.

With the bar raised to 5.81m, Marschall again missed at the first attempt. He had regularly attacked the height over the course of the international competition season without success, but on this occasion he sailed over to the delight of both himself and the crowd.

And he wasn’t stopping there. Marschall etched a further five centimetres onto his personal best with a second attempt clearance at 5.86m, which also saw him take a podium place in front of a collection of the best vaulters of the current generation.

The Zurich meet was won by Timur Morgunov (5.91m) – competing as an Authorised Neutral Athlete. Canadian Shawnacy Barber finished second ahead of Marschall on countback, having cleared 5.86m at the first attempt.

Marschall was contesting the event as a warm-up for Friday night’s Diamond League Final which will take place in Brussels.

Athletics Australia also confirmed 26 Australians set to represent Asia/Pacific at the 2018 Continental Cup in the Czech Republic.

Marschall will jump in the men’s pole vault, where he will be joined by Western Australian sprinter Aaron Bresland – who has secured a berth as a member of the Asia/Pacific men’s 4x100m relay squad.