Agency:
Camryn Rogers set the tone early in the women’s hammer throw at the world athletics championships Monday with an impressive opening toss of 78.09 metres.
Good enough for a world title. Not good enough for Rogers.
The 26-year-old from Richmond, B.C., put the competition out of reach with her second throw of 80.51 metres to claim her second straight world championship gold medal in dominant fashion.
Rogers’s winning throw broke her own Canadian record and is the second longest ever behind the world record of 82.98 set by Poland’s Anita Wlodarczyk in 2016. Rogers’s previous personal best was 78.88 metres.
“I think I’m feeling every single emotion under the sun, all it once,” Rogers said. “I think tonight was everything we could have possibly hoped for in a competition.”
Silver medallist Zhao Jie of China was well back of Rogers with a top throw of 77.60 metres. Another Chinese thrower, Zhang Jaile, was third at 77.10 metres. Rogers now has two world championship gold medals to go with her Olympic title at the 2024 Paris Games.
“I think for everything to come together at a major championship makes these moments so special,” Rogers said. “To win a world championship once is very hard to do but to defend it is even harder.”
Rogers said that she and coach Mo Saatara knew it was going to take something special to repeat as world champion. She did that quickly in Tokyo by going over 80 metres for the first time in her career.
“To do that on my second throw was pretty crazy, but then to be able to come back and have a consistent series, even throw a 79 on my last throw, it was everything that I could have possibly dreamed of,” said Rogers, who bested the silver-medal mark with four of her six throws on Monday.
“I’m still on Cloud 9,” she added with a laugh.
It was Canada’s second gold at the world championships – and second world title for an athlete from Richmond – after Evan Dunfee finished first in the 35-kilometre race walk on Saturday. In other results from Monday’s late session, Foster Malleck of Kitchener, Ont., finished 11th in his 1,500-metre semifinal. Malleck fell hard when he was caught up in a group of runners, but got back to his feet and finished the race.
