Marschall pledges to leave nothing in the tank in final

Playing it smart in the Olympic pole vault qualifying round paid off big-time for Kurtis Marschall.

But never mind protecting the ankle he dislocated so badly back in April, the Australian knows that approach won’t cut it in Monday night’s final against the likes of Armand Duplantis.

It’s going for broke time.

As recently as two weeks’ ago and with the ankle still giving him grief, Marschall would have been satisfied just to make it through to the Olympic final.

But he has turned a corner in the nickname of time.

After three first-time clearances at 5.40m, 5.60m and 5.70m in the qualifying round on Saturday, Marschall gambled he wouldn’t need to jump again.

It proved to be an inspired call, even if he had to sit through an excruciating 30 minutes waiting for two other competitors to be eliminated after failing to clear 5.75m.

“Technically everything is flowing, everything is good,” said the 27-year-old Australian.

“My body weight is good, my speed is good, my strength is good, everything is lining up.

“So the end is all out.

“The final is literally everything you’ve got left.

“I’ve only got one day to recover, so I’ll go back to the village for ice and treatment, get the whole Oz team on board and have three guys massaging me.”

Panadol and anti-inflammatories are also on the agenda, although Marshall has decided against a local anesthetic that would have dulled the pain when jumping.

Marschall dislocated his left ankle after falling badly at the Australian championships in Adelaide in April.

“Performance-wise it’s good; it just doesn’t look like a normal ankle anymore,” he quipped.

Swedish superstar Duplantis, the defending Olympic gold medalist, world record holder and two-time world champ, is one of the shortest-priced favorites at the Games.

But as evidenced by his bronze medal at last year’s world championships in Budapest, Marschall at his best is right in the hunt for a place on the podium.

“That performance was huge (for me),” said Marschall, who took a while to get over the huge disappointment of no-heighting in the Tokyo Olympics final.

“We did exactly the same last time – clear, clear, clear all the way through qualifying into the final and then basically left everything out there.

“I’ve learned from past experiences, from all the years and comps that I’ve done in the past.

“My head is in the right spot and I managed to jump 5.95m at the first attempt (in the Budapest final).

“Something like that would be nice again.”