Budapest 23 x Throws Preview: Women's Javelin
By Kara Winger
Four-time Olympian, nine-time U.S. national champion, and 2022 Diamond League Final winner Kara Winger provides us with her insight ahead of the throwing competition at the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary. Who will be crowned this year’s world champions? Follow along all week for Kara’s previews before tuning in to watch the meet on NBC and Peacock (which will also have some additional streams of field event finals).
Women’s Javelin
American javelin thrower Ariana Ince at the 2023 Toyota USATF Outdoor Championships at Hayward Field. Photo by Howard Lao
Qualification Round: Wednesday, 8/23 | Group A – 1:20am PT, Group B – 2:55am PT
Final Round: Friday, 8/25 | 11:20am PT
Ah, my favorite event. I do miss it. But being here in Budapest, wandering around the venues, seeing familiar faces from a new vantage point, I’m even more okay than I already was. I am a rabid throws fan, and I truly love just watching. Knowing how it feels to be where the athletes are, for sure, and letting that emotion that I can personally draw on inform my viewership, but not being the one to perform anymore…is wonderful. I got much more out of my career than I could have ever dreamed at the beginning (🥹).
Okay but this isn’t about me!
Similar to last season, 2023 started out a bit slow, but the saturation of talent at the top of the women’s game this year is exciting, and makes this competition truly anyone’s for the taking. Like any event there are some strong favorites, but I cannot begin to predict with true confidence what will happen.
Two-time World Champion and Tokyo bronze medalist Kelsey-Lee Barber of Australia’s 66.91m in Eugene in round two last year blew the field away, as my eventual silver was a distant 64.05m. Prior to both Tokyo and Eugene, she performed moderately, finishing middle of the pack in multiple Diamond League meets and not showing her true hand until it came to the big show, and then finishing each season strong. The same is true this year (she’s ninth on the list at 62.54m), and Kels has proven over and over that she is not to be counted out. A medal in Budapest would be her fourth straight global championship podium, consistency the likes of which has only been replicated by true greats in the event, a category she already belongs to as the first ever back-to-back World Champion.
Two other top five finishers from Eugene have been performing strongly this summer: Diamond League standings leaders Haruka Kitaguchi of Japan (world leader at 67.04m) and 2023 Australian Champion Mackenzie Little (third in the world this year with a Paris DL victory PB of 65.70m). Haruka, bronze medalist from Eugene and truly the one who made that sixth round magical, has been the most consistent women’s javelin thrower in the world in the past two seasons, competes a lot, and throws far at all points in any season. Mackenzie, who threw a PB in Tokyo qualifying to make the final and went on to finish 8th at her first Olympic Games, has built on her prior seasons so well since then. At 25 and 26 years old, respectively, both of them are 0% intimidated by any competitors, and have performed well repeatedly at major championships.
Yet another Oceania force to be reckoned with is New Zealand’s national record holder, Tori Peeters. She made her senior Worlds debut in 2022 and has really come into her own this year, going beyond 60m at all four of her northern hemisphere competitions this summer, including her PB of 63.26m in Japan in May.
Lina Muze-Sirma, Sigrid Borge, and Kathryn Mitchell also have my heart! Lina, my Latvian friend, has been consistently over ~63m since 2018, after recovering from a catastrophic knee injury in 2016. Sixth in Eugene, her SB 64.78m to win Latvian Nationals this year gives me good vibes for Budapest. It’s her time to break through. Sigrid, Norwegian champion times four, led the world early with a 3m PB at the Hallesche Werfertage of 66.50m. After years of injury struggles (she hadn’t been over 56m since 2019), I shed a tear for her then, and can’t wait to see her here. Kathryn Mitchell, an absolute inspiration of mine, the Australian Record holder at 68.92m (when she won Commonwealth gold in 2018), will compete at the age of 41. She’s been 6th in three straight Olympic finals.
Younger phenoms Adriana Vilagos of Serbia and European Champion Elina Tzengko of Greece are also contenders, and Austria’s Victoria Hudson is in her fourth 61m+ season in a row. My American teammates Ariana Ince and Maggie Malone led me in Tucson in 2021 in the first ever competition in which three U.S. women were over 200’ in the same meet. They are fourth and second, respectively, on the U.S. all-time list, and both more than capable of capturing a top 12 spot from qualifying. As I’ve said a few times (and lived), anything can happen when you put yourself in a final.
The big Q mark for women’s javelin is 61.50m, when it’s been much further in recent years! I would love to see 15 women hit that standard. There are 20 on the world list who have thrown further this year. But if they don’t, top 12 overall to finals per usual! And I can’t wait to watch my friends back at Hayward Field in September: Haruka, Mackenzie, and Kelsey are virtual locks for the Diamond League Final, with one more regular season meet to go before the Pre Classic. I’ll be cheering my lungs out in the stands in less than a month!