Paris Olympics preview: javelin

Women's javelin

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• Japan’s Haruka Kitaguchi will seek to add Olympic gold to the world title she won last summer
• Colombia’s world silver medallist Flor Ruiz tops this year’s world list
• Serbia’s 20-year-old Adriana Vilagos, Austria’s Victoria Hudson and Australia’s Mackenzie Little also loom large

In 2022 Haruka Kitaguchi became the first Japanese woman to win a senior global medal in any throwing event when taking bronze at the World Championships.

Last year she turned bronze into gold at the World Championships in Budapest with a last-round effort of 66.73m that overhauled the first-round lead set by Colombia’s Flor Ruiz, a South American record of 65.47m.

This exuberant 26-year-old Japanese athlete – who set a season’s best of 65.21m when winning at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Monaco in July – will be a strong contender for gold in what will be her second Olympics.

But such is the spread of talent in this event that the competition in Paris is likely to be open and unpredictable.

Ruiz, 33, who was ninth at the Rio 2016 Games, remains a strong contender for the title in Paris having extended her South American record to a world-leading 66.70m earlier this year. She hasn’t competed since May, though, so her recent form is somewhat unknown.

But only a little way behind her is another thrower demonstrating top form at the ideal time – Australia’s world bronze medallist Mackenzie Little, whose winning effort of 66.27m at the London Diamond League meeting in late July moved her to second on this year’s world list.

In second place was the 20-year-old Serbian Adriana Vilagos, who earned European silver in June in a national record of 64.42m, a mark she raised to 65.58m in what was a huge morale-booster ahead of the Olympics.

Also firmly in the frame will be the 28-year-old Austrian who beat Vilagos to European gold by just 20cm, Victoria Hudson, who competed at the last Olympic Games but failed to reach the final.

Meanwhile Maggie Malone-Hardin has underlined her medal possibilities with a throw of 65.00m in early June which she followed up by winning the US Trials with 64.58m.

Other potential contenders include NCAA champion Rhema Otabor of The Bahamas, 2021 Olympic silver medallist Maria Andrejczyk of Poland and European bronze medallist Marie-Therese Obst of Norway.

 

Men's javelin

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• India’s world and Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra will defend title still seeking a first 90-metre throw
• Czech thrower Jakob Vadlejch looking good after earning long-awaited European gold in Rome
• German teenager Max Dehning tops this year’s world list with early effort of 90.20m

This year, after silver medals at the Olympics, World and European Championships, and a couple of world bronzes, Jakub Vadlejch finally struck gold.

And as the 33-year-old Czech athlete stood atop the podium in Rome’s Stadio Olimpico last month having won the European title, you wonder how profoundly his change in altitude might affect his attitude at Paris 2024.

Vadlejch has been in form since the start of the season, when he won an almighty competition at the Doha Diamond League meeting in May with an effort of 88.38m, beating India’s world and Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra by just two centimetres, and with Grenada’s two-time world champion Anderson Peters finishing third with 86.36m.

In Rome he bettered that mark, claiming his first international gold with a final-round effort of 88.65m to snatch victory from Germany’s defending champion and first-round leader on 85.94m, Julian Weber.

It seems fate could be working for Vadlejch this year.

Chopra, massively popular in India following his landmark victories over the past three years, will surely make a strong defence of his title as he seeks to get over the 90-metre marker for the first time in his illustrious career, which includes an Indian record of 89.94m set in Stockholm in 2022.

Peters, meanwhile, will have sights set on a third global title having returned to something like his best form after recovering from the severe injuries he sustained in August 2022 when he was beaten by five crew members of a party boat.

A throw of 78.49m was not enough for him to qualify for last year’s world final in Budapest, but this ebullient 26-year-old is clearly in significantly better shape now.

Weber also stands as a strong medal contender, having thrown 88.37m this year, which has him currently third on this year’s world list.

He ranks behind young teammate Max Dehning, who threw a world-leading 90.20m in February to break the European U23 record.

While the 19-year-old appears to have a bright future, his next-best throw this season has been 81.78m while his past four competitions have been on the shorter side of the 80-metre line.

World silver medallist Arshad Nadeem of Pakistan has competed just once this year, throwing 84.21m at the Diamond League meeting in Paris, but he is a proven championship performer and a 90-metre thrower at his best.

Finland’s European bronze medallist Oliver Helander, currently seventh on the world list with the 85.75m he threw in Rome, will also be in the mix, as will 24-year-old Teuraiterai Tuapia, who broke the French record this year with 86.11m.

Meanwhile Trinidad and Tobago’s 31-year-old Keshorn Walcott, 2012 Olympic champion and 2016 bronze medallist, is back in the frame with a season’s best of 85.22m that has him ranked 11th on the world list.

Another global champion, Kenya’s 2015 world gold medallist Julius Yego, has maintained his position as a genuine challenger having won the African title with 80.24m.

Mike Rowbottom for World Athletics