World indoor record-holder Jenn Suhr surprisingly failed to qualify for Sunday’s pole vault final, while the favourite, Ekaterini Stefanidi, needed just one vault to secure her place.
Stefanidi, the Olympic and European champion, entered the competition at the automatic qualifying height of 4.60m, knowing that a single clearance would be enough to make the final. That was because the bar had reached 4.55m in each of the two qualifying pools, with only eight athletes remaining.
