Originally Posted by beachmouse

She competed today with borrowed poles (the announcers described it as asking a professional golfer to compete at a major tournament with borrowed clubs) and went out at 4.54 meters. Her season's best is a 4.75 at Commies a few weeks back, and assumption is she was in similar form here. 4.54 got her 7th place and two points toward qualifying for the very high paycheck Diamond League Final, which is the biggest event of the track & field sports schedule for 2018. (non-outdoor World Championships, non-Olympic year) The winning vault today by Sandi Morris was a 4.74, which got Sandi 8 points toward the Diamond League final .

Given that elite athletes only get a certain number of invitations to the 'regular season' Diamond League meetings, and that Newman underperformend compared to Commies with unfamiliar equipment, it's not that much of a pathway for the broken poles in Doha to lead to a failure to qualify for the final and high placing in the DL final, and as much as a six figure (USD/CAD) loss in income from prize money, sponsorship deals, and appearance fees an athlete who is A- list on the global track scene can get.