Little lifts and launches to bronze

Australia’s rich history of success in the Women’s Javelin continued on Day Seven of the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary as final-year medicine student Mackenzie Little launched to an iconic final-round bronze.

Having asserted herself as a major player internationally throughout 2023, it came as no surprise to her rivals when the Australian erupted to collect the bronze, but it was not without a nervous-wait for Australian fans and spectators.

With a three-pronged attack going into tonight’s final, Australian competitors Little, Kelsey-Lee Barber (QLD, Mike Barber) and Kathryn Mitchell (VIC, Uwe Hohn) all had medals on their mind but for most of the competition, Australia sat out of the mix for medals.

In similar fashion to her compatriot Barber’s world title heroics, Little waited for her final throw to launch herself into medal contention. The Stanford graduate and former NCAA champion was sitting in fifth place, yet to come close to her potential, and needed to add more than one-and-a-half-metres to her previous best throw. Mustering up her strength and might, Little delivered spectacularly with a 63.38m bomb.

Little was briefly sitting in silver medal position before Japan’s Haruka Kitaguchi jumped from fourth to take the gold medal with a monster 66.73m effort. Colombian Flor Denis Ruiz Hurtado was relegated to silver with 65.47m.

“I’m meant to be flying home tomorrow morning and I’m meant to be at the hospital (Royal North Shore) on Monday morning but I hear there is a medal ceremony so we’re going to talk about that later!” Australia’s newest bronze medallist said. 

“I would say that Rounds 2, 3, 4 and 5 felt so close but I felt like something was missing but I kept going back to (coach) Angus (McEntyre) on the fence and saying I needed to get this and this right. If I’m honest, it didn’t come together on the sixth but I’ve got more and I’m so excited to show you I have more at the Diamond League Final (September 15-16, Oregon, USA), but this is absolutely a dream and the highlight of my career.”

The 26-year-old has an uncommon approach to competing and training, balancing her athletic endeavours with postgraduate medicine study at Sydney University. Instead of basing herself in Europe for international competition as most Australian track and field athletes do, Little would fly back and forth across the world to ensure she would be back to complete her course work.

“This whole season I’ve gotten better and better and I’ve learnt to travel well and compete and nail those technical things and I feel like I’ve jumped up to a higher echelon of throwers, confident in global finals so it’s exciting to be there and have expectations and learn how to handle that.

“(Working the way I do), there’s a part of me that loves the routine, the normalcy helps me come down from these major championships where the emotions are running so high and people feel drained and empty but I can’t afford to do that and I’ve got to get going.”

The future Dr. Little will look to maintain that lifestyle as she aims for gold at Paris 2024.

“The plan remains the same but I’d like an upgrade. I have a lot of self belief now. It’s going to be hard and challenging next year, as I work full time and it will be emotionally draining too but I know I can find the balance and I’m excited for next year.”

Already Australia’s most successful event at the World Athletics Championships, Little’s bronze adds to Kelsey-Lee Barber’s two gold medals as well as Joanna Stone and Kim Mickle’s two silver medals from 1997 and 2013 respectively.

Looking for a historic three-peat, Babrer delivered a best effort of 61.19m on her fifth attempt for seventh place, but was proud to see another Australian succeed and in such dramatic fashion.

“Both girls delivered in that final round and it’s so good to see the event do that. It keeps the crowd coming back,” Barber said. 

“I know more than anyone what that feels like and I applaud both of those girls for lifting like that.”

In a heartbreaking ending to her fifth world championships campaign, Mitchell tore her adductor in her final warm up throw, unable to compete in the final. 

Also making an appearance on the javelin runway was Cameron McEntyre (NSW, Angus McEntyre) who’s campaign unraveled in three throws, with the two-time World Championships representative mustering up a best third-round attempt of 78.10m, to finish 19th overall and just 1.68m from a finals berth. 

The Hungarian capital saw 24 athletes make their first bid for the title of the world’s most versatile athlete, as Olympic bronze medallist Ash Moloney (QLD, Steve Rippon) along with Commonwealth medallists Cedric Dubler (QLD, Chris Gaviglio) and Daniel Golubovic (QLD, Paul Pearce) took to the field for the Decathlon.

After five of the ten events, Golubovic is Australia’s only man standing, sitting at 15th place and a cumulative point score of 4032 at the end of Day One. 

“The energy is great, the weather is fantastic and I call myself “solar powered” so I love the heat. For some reason, it’s been a rough prep but not quite all there today. We put some good marks together and I’m slightly down for where I’d like to be but I’m being consistent so it’s tough to argue with that.”

Moloney was forced to withdraw after the long jump due to a hamstring injury, while Dubler bowed out of competition before the final event of the night, the 400m, having jarred his back earlier in the day. 

High flying Australians Eleanor Patterson (NSW, Alex Stewart) and Nicola Olyslagers (NSW, Matt Horsnell) made light work of the Women’s High Jump Qualification, advancing to the final with ease. 

Reigning champion Patterson only needed three effortless jumps at 1.85m, 1.89m and 1.92m to book her spot in Sunday’s final, while world lead and Olympic silver medallist Olyslagers took four, clearing 1.92m on her second attempt.

27-year-old Patterson, who had an interrupted season after breaking her foot in February, was humble in her success, happy to get back to doing what she loves most.

“The pressure of being world champion is there but at the same time you can pick and choose whether or not to heap it onto your back or weigh yourself down. Having the opportunity to sit on the sidelines with injury helped me to process being world champion in a different way and now I’m ready to go out there and have fun,” she said.

For Olylslagers, a year without a personal best is fueling her to tackle her equal Australian record she shares with Patterson.

“One big thing I’m taking away from this is that the surface is very reactive so I need to have that balance between not putting too much effort in and also not being too relaxed. I’m out there to get a new PB - not just equal it - I’m really hungry for it.”

18-year-old Erin Shaw (NSW, Alex Stewart) relished the opportunity to compete alongside her idols, clearing 1.80m to finish her first Senior World Championships campaign. 

Abbey Caldwell (VIC, Gavin Burren) led the charge for the country’s middle distance women, tackling the 800m Semi-Finals with rigour. Coming back to the track for her fourth race of the Championships, the Commonwealth bronze medallist fell short of qualifying for the final by 0.06-seconds, crossing the line fifth in 1:59.05 for fifth place. Australian record holder Catriona Bisset (VIC, Ned Brophy-Williams) faced a classy field in the first of the two Semi-Finals, which included Olympic silver medallist Keely Hodgkinson, placing sixth in 1:59.94. 

The Australian women’s 4x100m relay team consisting of Ebony Lane (VIC, Matt Carter), Bree Masters (QLD, Ryan Hoffman), Kristie Edwards (QLD, David Reid) and Torrie Lewis (QLD, Andrew Iselin) were eliminated from competition, missing the second handover between Masters and Edwards. 

The penultimate day of competition starts tomorrow at 3pm AEST with the Women’s Marathon. Australia’s Decathletes will return to the arena, while Kurtis Marschall looks to follow in Nina Kennedy’s footsteps as he takes on the Men’s Pole Vault final. 

By Sascha Ryner, Athletics Australia
Posted: 26/8/2023