Lena Kaczkowska wins Youth Olympic Games bronze in Dakar — Interia Sport

Sixteen-year-old Polish pole vaulter Lena Kaczkowska won a bronze medal at the Youth Olympic Games in Dakar, Senegal. The SKLA Sopot club representative cleared 3.60 m and shared third place with Japan’s Kiyora Matsuura.

A medal on the first day of the athletics programme

Kaczkowska began the competition with a successful attempt at 3.60 m. The bar was then raised to 3.80 m, but the Polish athlete was unable to clear it in three attempts. Her result of 3.60 m was enough to earn bronze.

Gold was won by France’s Julie Burgis, who finished with a result of 4.20 m. Hungary’s Csenge Zsuzsanna Zsombor took silver. As Interia Sport reports, the pole vault competition took place in temperatures of around 35 degrees Celsius.

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The athletes’ previous results

In the summer, Kaczkowska finished fifth at the European U18 Championships in Rieti, Italy, where she set a personal best of 3.90 m. Burgis won then with 4.40 m, a result that became the record for those championships.

The Youth Olympic Games in Dakar were the fourth in the tournament’s history and the first after an eight-year break. At the previous Games in Buenos Aires in 2018, Polish player Iga Świątek won the gold medal in tennis doubles together with Kaja Juvan.