World Athletics began its rollout of the event previews ahead of the World Athletics Championships in Oregon, starting next week, and first on the list are the women’s and men’s javelin competitions.
The 2022 championships will run from 15-24 July with the qualification rounds for the women’s javelin scheduled for Wednesday, 20 July, and the men’s opening rounds listed for a day later on Thursday (21). The women’s final will take place on Friday, 22 July while the men’s category will be staged on 23 July.
Reigning Global Champions Return For Oregon Battles
Both events will see the return of the respective 2019 champions from Doha, as well as the Olympic champions in Tokyo last summer.
On the women’s side, world champion Kelsey-Lee Barber of Australia will be aiming to win back-to-back world titles, but she will need to improve greatly on her current form as she’s ranked 24th in the world this year with a best mark of 61.40m, which would have only been enough for 8th place in Doha, three-years-ago.
Barber won a bronze medal at the Olympics last summer behind the Tokyo champion Liu Shiying of China who improved on the silver medal she won at the 2019 world championships. Timetable | world rankings | 2022 world list | world all-time list
So far this season, though, Shiying has not recorded a mark, but she was named to the Chinese squad that will travel to the US for the world championships.
Meanwhile, Olympic silver medalist Maria Andrejczyk of Poland will be hoping to recapture her best form in Oregon as she seeks to win another major championship medal. The 26-year-old led the world in 2021 with her personal best mark of 71.40m, but has only thrown 57.53m for a season-best this year.
Maggie Malone of USA owns the longest throw this season with 65.73m, but failed to record a mark at the USATF Outdoor Championships 2022 last month.
The 28-year-old, however, is one of only three Americans to meet the qualifying standard for the worlds, so she will join Kara Winger and Ariana Ince in Team USA squad for the event.
Elsewhere, the field will also include China’s Lyu Huihiu who captured the bronze in Doha, Christin Hussong of Germany, the fourth-place finisher in 2019, with Yulenmis Aguilar of Cuba and Annu Rani of India also in the field.
The Men’s Javelin Contest Will Be Very Exciting
On the men’s side, world champion Anderson Peters, the reigning world champion and current world leader, Olympic gold medalist Neeraj Chopra and Olympic silver medalist Jakub Vadlejch headline a very strong field that will battle for the world title.
Peters heads into the world championships with the best throw of the year at 93.07m, which is No. 5 on the all-time list. Timetable | world rankings | 2022 world list | world all-time list
Vadlejch who finished 5th at Doha 2019 is ranked second in the world top list this year with a personal-best mark of 90.88m which he registered to finish second to the Grenadian national record holder at the Diamond League meeting in Doha in May.
India’s Olympic champion Chopra made a late start to his campaign because of injury setbacks and after a lengthy pause in competition, the Tokyo champion finally opened his season in early June.
Despite the delay, though, the two-time Asian Games champion has already thrown two national records, following his 89.30m mark in his season opener in Turku, and his current PB of 89.94m at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Stockholm.
After winning the gold medal at the Olympics last summer, the 24-year-old will be hoping to get the better of his rivals again in Oregon later this month.
In the meantime, Oliver Helander of Finland who defeated Peters, Vadlejch, and Chopra in Turku, when throwing a PB of 89.83m, is another strong medal contender at the World Athletics Championships 2022, along with the likes of Germany’s Julian Weber (84.91m) and Keshorn Walcott (88.70m) of Trinidad and Tobago, the Olympic champion at London 2012.
For a comprehensive preview of each event, click here
