New Zealand pole vaulter Imogen Ayris has produced the best Diamond League result of her career, clearing 4.70 metres to take silver behind Olympic champion Nina Kennedy at the Meeting International Mohammed VI d’Athletisme in Rabat, Morocco.
It was Ayris’ first podium finish on the Diamond League circuit, the sport’s premier global series, and a clear step up from the fourth place she managed at the same Moroccan meeting a year ago. Eight of the women in the field arrived with better personal bests than the 24-year-old from Auckland, which made the result all the sweeter when she got the height over on her second attempt.
Kennedy, the Australian who holds Olympic, world and Commonwealth Games titles, settled the contest early. She sailed over 4.80 metres at her first attempt and then retired from the competition with the win already secured, leaving Ayris to hold off the rest of a deep field for second.
The other New Zealander in the runway, Olivia McTaggart, finished in equal fifth with a clearance of 4.60 metres. It made for a strong showing from the pair in an event that has quietly become one of New Zealand’s most reliable sources of international podiums.
According to RNZ, the silver continues a breakout 2026 for Ayris, who took bronze at the world indoor championships in Poland earlier in the year with a personal best of 4.76 metres. That medal was shared three ways with Switzerland’s Angelica Moser and Czechia’s Amalie Svabikova, in a competition Ayris described as remarkable for its sheer strength in depth.
“Having nine girls over 4.70m is crazy depth and 4.80m was definitely a sticking point in the competition,” she told The Post after that world indoor medal. Asked what had changed to lift her into the global elite, she offered no secret formula. “It’s funny because people keep asking me what I’m doing different and I just say nothing. There’s no magic recipe – I’m just stacking session on session, week on week and year on year.”
That patience is showing up on the results sheet. The Rabat silver puts Ayris among the form vaulters of the early outdoor season and continues a steady climb that has taken her from promising junior to genuine medal threat at the top level. The 4.70 she managed in Morocco is not far off her best, and on a runway where the conditions and the company were both demanding, clearing it for silver said plenty about where her confidence sits.
New Zealand had a third athlete in action at the meeting. Shot put veteran Tom Walsh, a former world champion and Olympic medallist, threw 21.24 metres in the fifth round to finish sixth in a strong field. Walsh, who has been chasing his old rhythm after injury setbacks, was honest about a result that fell short of the podium but encouraged by how he was moving in the circle.
“A little disappointed. It’s the best I’ve moved in the comp this year,” Walsh told the NZ Herald, adding that he was looking for redemption at the next meeting.
That next meeting comes quickly. The New Zealand contingent backs up at the Rome Diamond League on Thursday, where Ayris and McTaggart will be joined by Eliza McCartney. The 2016 Olympic bronze medallist is making her international return this year after a long run of injury frustration, and her presence gives New Zealand three women capable of clearing big heights in the same field. A nation of five million producing that kind of pole vault depth is no small thing on the world stage.
For Ayris, the Rome trip is a chance to keep the momentum rolling. The pole vault rewards athletes who can string good days together rather than peaking once, and her own description of the work, stacking session on session, suits a season that builds towards bigger targets later in the year. A first Diamond League podium is the sort of marker that tends to settle the nerves and raise the ceiling at the same time.
It also lands at a useful moment for New Zealand athletics, which has leaned heavily on its throwers and middle-distance runners for international results in recent years. A genuine medal contender in a glamour field event, backed by two more vaulters good enough to make finals, gives the sport something to build around heading into a busy northern summer of competition.
The women’s pole vault has rarely looked stronger globally, with the world’s best regularly clearing heights that would have won major medals a decade ago. Ayris has not only kept pace with that rising standard, she has started to beat most of the field that sets it. On the evidence of Rabat, she belongs there.
What did you make of Imogen Ayris’ silver in Rabat, and how far can this New Zealand pole vault group go this season? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job 🙂
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