2019 World Athletics Championships – Women's pole vault

Seventeen women made it to the final by clearing 4.60 m. In the final, they started at 4.50m but jumped next to 4.70m, taking the field down to a dozen, nine still with clean rounds. At 4.80 m, six were over, but only Anzhelika Sidorova and Sandi Morris were still clean. At 4.85 m, defending and Olympic champion Katerina Stefanidi missed once while Morris and Sidorova remained clean. Angelica Bengtsson, Alysha Newman and Holly Bradshaw couldn't get over the bar. Bradshaw saved one attempt for 4.90 m but missed, then Stefanidi missed. When Morris and Sidorova cleared on their first attempts, Stefanidi saved her two remaining attempts for 4.95 m. At this height, only three women had ever cleared 4.95 m (16 ft 2 ³⁄₄ in), one of them Morris who had done it four times. Through the first two rounds of attempts, nobody cleared, eliminating Stefanidi with the bronze. On her final attempt, Morris missed. Then Sidorova cleared. The tie was broken and Sidorova became only the fourth woman in history to clear 4.95 m.

Morris congratulated her opponent upon losing the competition, an act which earned her a place on the shortlist for the International Fair Play Award that year.[2]

The final is noted as one of the best finals in the history of the World Championships. Six women cleared 4.80 m, a record for the event. Prior to 2019, the maximum number of women who cleared 4.80 m in a World Championship final was three, in 2013 and 2015. In fact, the winning height of 4.95 m would have won all previous World Championships except for 2005 when Yelena Isinbayeva won with a then-world record of 5.01 m.

Before the competition records were as follows:[3]

Record	Perf.	Athlete	Nat.	Date	Location
World	5.06	Yelena Isinbayeva	RUS	28 Aug 2009	Zürich, Switzerland
Championship	5.01	Yelena Isinbayeva	RUS	12 Aug 2005	Helsinki, Finland
World leading	4.91	Jennifer Suhr	USA	30 Mar 2019	Austin, United States
African	4.42	Elmarie Gerryts	RSA	12 Jun 2000	Wesel, Germany
Asian	4.72	Li Ling	CHN	18 May 2019	Shanghai, China
NACAC	5.02 i	Jennifer Suhr	USA	2 Mar 2013	Albuquerque, United States
South American	4.87	Fabiana Murer	BRA	3 Jul 2016	São Bernardo do Campo, Brazil
European	5.06	Yelena Isinbayeva	RUS	28 Aug 2009	Zürich, Switzerland
Oceanian	4.94	Eliza McCartney	NZL	17 Jul 2018	Jockgrim, Germany

The event schedule, in local time (UTC+3), was as follows:[4]