Olympic champion Katie Moon of the United States and Australian Nina Kennedy shared gold after tying in a nail-biting women's world pole vault final in Budapest on Wednesday.

Kennedy and Moon, who won Olympic gold in Tokyo in 2021 and took the world title in Eugene last year under her maiden name of Nageotte, both vaulted a best of 4.90m and could not be separated on countback as both had one failure at that height.

After a brief chat between the two competitors and the officials, it was decided that both would be world champions.

The vaulters embraced, surrounded by photographers, and to roars of approval from the near-capacity crowd at the National Athletics Centre.

The outcome echoed the men's jump at the Tokyo Olympics when Qatar's Mutaz Essa Barshim and Gianmarco Tamberi of Italy were allowed to share the gold medal with the same height of 2.37m.

Wilma Murto of Finland claimed the bronze medal.

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