A quartet of gold medals gives Australia biggest Olympics haul ever

The Paris Olympics is Australia’s most successful Games.

Four more gold medals won on Day 12 has taken the gold medal tally to 18 for the Aussies which surpasses the 17 won at both Tokyo 2020 and Athens 2004.

Nina Kennedy reigned supreme in the pole vault to become the first Australian woman to win gold in a field event. She jumped 4.90 metres to beat the USA’s Katie Moon who won the event in Tokyo three years ago.

Kennedy, 27, was intent on claiming gold and was over the moon, so to speak, after accomplishing her goal.

“I was very open to the media about it, I was very vulnerable,” she told Channel Nine.

“I said from the start I wanted to win the gold medal and it's scary, it's vulnerable but I did it and I couldn't be proud of myself and my team.”

Kennedy’s was one of a quartet of gold medals won by Australian athletes the day.

At the Velodrome National, the Aussie men’s pursuit team won cycling gold by beating Great Britain.

They had set a new world record in the lead-up ands backed that up by holding off their rivals in the gold medal race.

Oliver Bleddyn, Kelland O'Brien, Sam Welsford, Conor Leahy and James Moriarty formed the victorious team.

Skateboarding star Keegan Palmer defended his crown in then men’s park event, making it an Aussie double after 14-year-old Arisa Trew claimed the women’s park event on Day 11.

Palmer, 21, produced a brilliant opening run for a score of 93.11 which was more than enough for him to stand atop the dais.

The men’s dinghy event was won by Matt Wearn after a delayed start.

Wearn was forced to re-run the course after the initial race was abandoned near the finish. But he overcame that to make it back-to-back golds in the event, becoming the first person to do so.

Australian sailors have dominated the dinghy across the last four Olympics with Wearn’s victory coming on the back of his Tokyo 2020 triumph and following Tom Burton at Rio 2016 and Tom Slingsby at London 2012.

Aussie pair Rhydian Crowley and Jemima Montag also claimed bronze in the mixed relay race walk while Matthew Denny landed the bronze in the men’s discus throw. He becomes the first Australian to win an Olympic medal in the discus.

The medal tally for the Aussies now sits at 18 gold, 12 silver and 11 bronze, with only the USA (27 gold) and China (25 gold) more successful in Paris so far.