The wait is over. The Olympic champion is returning to where it all began.
For the first time since soaring to pole vault gold at Paris 2024, reigning Olympic and world champion Nina Kennedy will return to her home track at WA Athletics Stadium to headline the Perth Track Classic on March 1, 2025.
A homecoming for Australia’s golden girl, the competition will mark Kennedy’s first on Australian soil since her crowning moment in Paris, as well as her first Track Classic appearance since 2021. On that occasion in Sydney, she famously broke Alana Boyd’s Australian record for the first time to lay the foundations of an Olympic fairytale.
“Travelling to all these competitions overseas and competing in awesome stadiums in front of massive crowds are such highlights of my career, however the track here in Perth feels like home to me and nothing beats the familiarity and memories I’ve created here through my career,” Kennedy said.
WA Athletics Stadium has been central to Kennedy’s athletics upbringing. It was here she made some of her first pole memories and also where she set a World Under 20 Record of 4.59m in 2015 – a performance that marked her arrival as one of the sport’s emerging stars.
Now, she returns to where it all began, bringing her world-beating credentials back to Perth as a top 10 pole vaulter in global history with a 4.91m personal best.
“It’s so early in the season so I’ll be jumping off a shortened approach. No matter what competition I’m competing in, I always give it my all, so you can expect a laser-focussed competitor having some fun on her home turf,” Kennedy said.
“I’m genuinely stoked to have the Track Classic back here in Perth. It’s such an awesome track with great conditions, and when the stadium has some fans in it, it creates an epic atmosphere.”
As the first athlete announced for Perth’s premier athletics meet, Kennedy is hard to top as the headline act, but she won’t be along on the runway.
World Under 20 bronze medallist Tryphena Hewett leads a field of rising stars including Kennedy’s training partner Olivia Gross, while Georgia Tayler recently launched herself up and over 4.25m to win the Australian Short Track Athletics Championships.
With a gold medallist, elite competition and an electric atmosphere guaranteed, the second stop in the Chemist Warehouse Summer Series is shaping up to be one of the biggest meets of the season.
The Perth Track Classic is proudly backed by the Western Australian Government, through Sport and Recreation, and Venues West.
Tickets are available to purchase HERE.
By Sascha Ryner, Australian Athletics
Posted: 7/2/2025
