Kennedy and Lee to take centre stage as final gold medal hopefuls for the South West

South West stars Nina Kennedy and Kyle Lee are winding up to go for gold as their Olympic campaigns come to a head.

Australian pole-vault record holder and Busselton product Kennedy took part in the women’s pole vault final over night after the Times went to print.

She entered the final as one of the favourites after leaping her way in with a qualifying height of 4.55m.

Kennedy is in strong form and holds the equal-top season best of 4.88m out of the finalists.

She set the height in her victorious Monaco Diamond League effort in July.

On Friday, Australind’s Kyle Lee will take to the River Seine at 1.30pm (AWST) for the men’s 10km marathon swim.

While the Seine has been under intense scrutiny for its water quality and bacteria levels, Lee will be hoping to put that to one side as he swims for gold.

Lee booked his spot at the Paris games by finishing ninth at the World Aquatics Championships at Doha in February.