MURTO CLEARS POLE VAULT WORLD JUNIOR RECORD OF 4.71M IN ZWEIBRUCKEN

The 17-year-old started the year with a best of 4.45m but had already cleared national records of 4.50m and 4.55m in competitions earlier in January – the latter competition two weeks ago on home soil in Turku, which saw her rise to fourth in the all-time junior indoor lists – but Murto has now made the leap into bonafide world-class territory.

Murto went clear at the first time of asking over 4.25m, 4.35m, 4.45m before running into some trouble at 4.55m, which she needed three attempts to negotiate.

Having equalled her personal best but with the seasoned Swiss international and record holder Nicole Buchler still in the competition, she then went straight over 4.65m to add one centimetre to the world junior record set by New Zealand’s Eliza McCartney outdoors last month.

Bucher, 15 years Murto’s senior, also cleared 4.65m on her second attempt – the third best performance of her career – so the bar went higher still.

On her second attempt, Murto sailed cleanly over 4.71m to suggest there is still more to come this winter and take the victory after Buchler failed on all three of her attempts at what would have been a Swiss indoor record.

With nothing to lose, after two world junior records in one competition, Murto had the bar raised to 4.77m but called it a day after two unsuccessful attempts.

Into the bargain, Murto also added 11cm to the Finnish record which had been held by Minna Nikkanen, who finished third on Sunday with 4.45m.

The calibre of Murto’s performance was made all the more impressive by the fact her poles didn’t make her flight from Finland, which caused her to plaintively comment via social media, and she was only repatriated with them just before the start of the competition.