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- West Australian capped record-breaking day for Australia
- Won the nation’s 18th gold at the Paris Olympics
- Made a hilarious comment in interview just after victory
Aussie golden girl Nina Kennedy launched into wild celebrations with her team and family after winning pole vault gold in Paris on Thursday morning – then hit a Channel Nine star with a hilarious comment that’s sure to have left him furious.
The 27-year-old capped Australia’s best ever day at an Olympics by taking the nation’s 18th gold and spoke to Nine presenter Tony Jones trackside soon afterwards.
After telling him that she felt ‘really calm’ during her tense battle for top spot on the podium with America’s Katie Moon, she wrapped up the interview by smiling broadly and signing off with, ‘Thanks, Chompers.’
Jones is known as ‘Chompers’ due to his eye-catching teeth, which look perfect after he had some work done more than 10 years ago.
The Melbourne-based Sunday Footy Show presenter is known AFL circles for hating the nickname, with one incident proving he’s not a fan.
Footy caller James Brayshaw said the moniker first surfaced in the Teddy Whitten Legends AFL game in 2009, when footy great and fellow commentator Garry Lyon remarked on how white Jones’s teeth suddenly were.
In 2016, late footy great Danny Frawley revealed Jones lost his temper when AFL stars kept using the nickname on TV, with North Melbourne legend Drew Petrie taking it to a new level by calling him ‘Chompity Chomp Chomp Chomp’ during a live cross with Jones.
‘After Drew Petrie did it on Wednesday, Tony Jones has thrown the toys out of the cot, got to the producer and said, do not text the players now to say, ‘See you later, Chomp’,’ Frawley said.
Nina Kennedy was all smiles as she hit a Channel Nine star with a hilarious two-word jibe after capping Australia’s best ever day at an Olympics
The gold medallist was being interviewed by Nine’s Tony Jones (pictured) when she signed off with, ‘Thanks, Chompers’ – a nickname the Footy Show host is known to hate
Kennedy’s incredible win was Australia’s 18th gold of the Paris Games – the best result the nation has ever had
‘I’m imploring every player that goes on the Thursday night Footy Show and they do a live cross with Chompers, give it to him large, because he doesn’t like it now.’
A year after the Western Australian famously shared top spot on the podium with American friend and rival Katie Moon at the world championships in Budapest, Kennedy had a gold medal all to herself.
But this was really about fulfilling her own sporting destiny in an exacting discipline she first took up aged 11 in 2008 after watching Steve Hooker claim Australia’s first – and until Wednesday night Australia’s only – Olympic pole vaulting gold medal.
‘Everything I feel like was thrown my way, even to the last second with the (malfunctioning) stands, it was kind of just like, I hate to say this, but I haven’t come this far just to come this far,’ she said.
‘So just throw anything at me and I will handle it.
‘And what I was thinking was ‘I have gone this long, handling setbacks, handling pressure, handling everything’.
The 27-year-old’s triumph capped Australia’s best day of competition at any Olympics ever
‘So just bring it on.’
After an early miss at 4.70m, the 27-year-old Kennedy was flawless at her next three heights, going over 4.80m, 4.85 and 4.90m at the first attempt.
She missed her first attempt at 4.95m but it didn’t matter, with 4.90m enough to secure the gold.
She found out afterwards that it was the 18th gold won by Australia at a single Olympics, beating the previous mark of 17.
So Kennedy made history for her nation too.
