EUGENE, Ore. – Purdue’s Kara Patterson won her second consecutive USA Championship in the women’s javelin on Saturday, topping the national field with an enormous career-best throw of 63.95 meters (209-10). The mark and victory advances her to the 2009 World Championships, to be held August 15-23, in Berlin, Germany.
Patterson’s throw shattered her previous best of 61.56 meters (202-00), which came just over a year ago at the 2008 Big Ten Championships in Champaign, Ill. In a rocky series for the former Boilermaker, she fouled her first attempt, marked just 48.88 meters (160-04) on her second attempt, and barely qualified for the finals, earning the seventh of eight spots with her third throw of 52.02 meters (170-08).
Her first attempt in the finals produced another foul, but the fifth throw of the afternoon proved to be the difference-maker, sailing just 24 centimeters shy of the national record and vaulting Patterson to the top of the field by more than four meters.
Patterson won the U.S. Olympic Trials last June, earning a trip to the 2008 Beijing Olympics and becoming the first female track and field Olympian in Purdue’s history. She was a two-time All-American for the Boilermakers, earning fifth in 2008 and second in 2009, won four NCAA Mideast Regional Championships and three Big Ten Championships.