Kelsey-Lee Barber in the javelin at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 (© Getty Images)
As the year draws to a close, we look back at the key moments of 2022 in each area of the sport.
The series continues with a review of the throws events and will be followed over the coming days by reviews of other event groups.
Women’s shot put
Season top list
| 20.51m | Chase Ealey 🇺🇸 USA | Eugene | 26 June |
| 20.39m | Gong Lijiao 🇨🇳 CHN | Eugene | 16 July |
| 20.38m | Song Jiayuan 🇨🇳 CHN | Shanghai | 16 June |
| 20.33m | Sarah Mitton 🇨🇦 CAN | Langley | 25 June |
| 20.24m | Jessica Schilder 🇳🇱 NED | Munich | 15 August |
World Athletics rankings
| 1 | Chase Ealey 🇺🇸 USA | 1466 |
| 2 | Sarah Mitton 🇨🇦 CAN | 1383 |
| 3 | Jessica Schilder 🇳🇱 NED | 1380 |
| 4 | Auriol Dongmo 🇵🇹 POR | 1374 |
| 5 | Danniel Thomas-Dodd 🇯🇲 JAM | 1284 |
World medallists
| 🥇 | Chase Ealey 🇺🇸 USA | 20.49m |
| 🥈 | Gong Lijiao 🇨🇳 CHN | 20.39m |
| 🥉 | Jessica Schilder 🇳🇱 NED | 19.77m NR |
| Full results | ||
Major winners
World Championships: Chase Ealey 🇺🇸 USA 20.49m
World Indoor Championships: Auriol Dongmo 🇵🇹 POR 20.43m
African Championships: Ischke Senekal 🇿🇦 RSA 16.40m
European Championships: Jessica Schilder 🇳🇱 NED 20.24m
NACAC Championships: Sarah Mitton 🇨🇦 CAN 20.15m
Oceania Championships: Ata Maama Tuutafaiva 🇹🇴 TGA 16.29m
Commonwealth Games: Sarah Mitton 🇨🇦 CAN 19.03m
Wanda Diamond League: Chase Ealey 🇺🇸 USA 20.19m
World U20 Championships: Mine De Klerk 🇿🇦 RSA 17.17m
Season at a glance
For the first time since 1991, five athletes surpassed 20 metres. Chase Ealey hadn’t gone beyond that barrier before this year but after a brilliant breakthrough she tops the season list with the 20.51m put that won her the US title – one of 10 throws beyond 20 metres she achieved outdoors. The 28-year-old was also impressive indoors, equalling the North American record of 20.21m to secure world silver behind Auriol Dongmo.
That would be her last loss of the year, as Ealey went on to win at Wanda Diamond League meetings in Doha, Oslo, Stockholm and the final in Zurich, as well as at the US Championships and then the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 where she was just two centimetres of her PB set the previous month, winning the title with 20.49m. China’s defending champion Gong Lijiao claimed silver in Oregon thanks to a 20.39m throw, while Jessica Schilder’s then Dutch record of 19.77m got her the bronze.
While Ealey threw 20 metres for the first time, Gong has now surpassed that mark in 12 of her competitive years in the shot put – the 33-year-old having first achieved it in 2009 – and she only competed twice in 2022.
Song Jiayuan is one place below her compatriot Gong on the season top list with the 20.38m she threw in Shanghai in June, while Sarah Mitton threw a Canadian record of 20.33m in Langley later that month, both athletes joining Ealey in surpassing 20 metres for the first time in 2022.
While Schilder set a national record to win world bronze, she threw even farther to win the European title in Munich, becoming the fifth athlete of the season to break 20 metres, managing 20.24m. She also got world indoor bronze behind Dongmo and Ealey in Belgrade.
That world indoor final was a thrilling affair, Dongmo asserting her dominance, Ealey responding with an outright PB and Dongmo fighting back again with that mighty 20.43m – the best women’s indoor throw since 2014. It was also the first indoor season since 2014 that two athletes have surpassed 20 metres.
Like last year, 14 athletes launched the shot beyond 19 metres during the outdoor season – the most since the 15 in 2012.
In age group competition, South Africa’s Mine De Klerk retained her title at the World Athletics U20 Championships Cali 22 and also won a second consecutive discus medal, adding bronze to the silver she claimed in Nairobi last year.
Men’s shot put
Season top list
| 23.23m | Joe Kovacs 🇺🇸 USA | Zurich | 7 September |
| 23.12m | Ryan Crouser 🇺🇸 USA | Eugene | 24 June |
| 22.31m | Tom Walsh 🇳🇿 NZL | Chorzow | 5 June |
| 22.29m | Josh Awotunde 🇺🇸 USA | Eugene | 17 July |
| 21.99m | Zane Weir 🇮🇹 ITA | Leiria | 13 March |
World Athletics rankings
| 1 | Joe Kovacs 🇺🇸 USA | 1510 |
| 2 | Ryan Crouser 🇺🇸 USA | 1498 |
| 3 | Tom Walsh 🇳🇿 NZL | 1423 |
| 4 | Darlan Romani 🇧🇷 BRA | 1390 |
| 5 | Filip Mihaljevic ğŸ‡ğŸ‡· CRO | 1390 |
World medallists
| 🥇 | Ryan Crouser 🇺🇸 USA | 22.94m CR |
| 🥈 | Joe Kovacs 🇺🇸 USA | 22.89m |
| 🥉 | Josh Awotunde 🇺🇸 USA | 22.29m |
| Full results | ||
Major winners
World Championships: Ryan Crouser 🇺🇸 USA 22.94m
World Indoor Championships: Darlan Romani 🇧🇷 BRA 22.53m
African Championships: Chukwuebuka Enekwechi 🇳🇬 NGR 21.20m
European Championships: Filip Mihaljevic ğŸ‡ğŸ‡· CRO 21.88m
NACAC Championships: Roger Steen 🇺🇸 USA 20.78m
Oceania Championships: Damien Birkinhead 🇦🇺 AUS 18.59m
Commonwealth Games: Tom Walsh 🇳🇿 NZL 22.26m
Wanda Diamond League: Joe Kovacs 🇺🇸 USA 23.23m
World U20 Championships: Tarik O'Hagan 🇺🇸 USA 20.73m
Season at a glance
It has been another epic year for the men’s shot put. For the first time ever, two athletes have surpassed 23 metres in the same season, Joe Kovacs joining Ryan Crouser in the 23 metre club with the world-leading 23.23m he achieved “for the twins” at the Wanda Diamond League Final in Zurich.
Kovacs now sits second on the world all-time list behind Crouser, who threw his world record of 23.37m at last year’s US Olympic Trials and went beyond 23 metres at both the US Championships and Eugene Diamond League in 2022.
It was Crouser who finished on top at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 as he added three centimetres to the championship record that two-time world title winner Kovacs had set in that thrilling final in Doha in 2019, recording 22.94m to lead a US sweep of the podium ahead of Kovacs and Josh Awotunde.
All five of Crouser’s valid attempts landed beyond 22 metres in that world final in Oregon, and the 30-year-old two-time Olympic champion has now thrown 22 metres or farther an incredible 189 times. In 2022 he surpassed 22 metres in 12 competitions, a feat achieved by Kovacs in 11 competitions.
Crouser had been hoping to claim his first world title four months earlier in Serbia, but Brazil’s Darlan Romani sprang a surprise at the World Indoor Championships Belgrade 22, adding 82cm to his own South American indoor record with a 22.53m championship record that puts him fourth on the world all-time list. Crouser got silver with 22.44m.
Four athletes – Kovacs and Crouser joined by New Zealand’s Tom Walsh and Awotunde – surpassed 22 metres during the 2022 outdoor season, compared to six in 2021 and eight in 2019. A total of 29 went beyond 21 metres, compared to 33 in 2021 and 27 in 2019.
Women’s discus
Season top list
| 71.46m | Valarie Allman 🇺🇸 USA | San Diego | 8 April |
| 69.12m | Feng Bin 🇨🇳 CHN | Eugene | 20 July |
| 68.46m | Sandra Perkovic ğŸ‡ğŸ‡· CRO | Zagreb | 11 September |
| 67.87m | Kristin Pudenz 🇩🇪 GER | Munich | 16 August |
| 65.66m | Jorinde van Klinken 🇳🇱 NED | Eugene | 18 July |
World Athletics rankings
| 1 | Valarie Allman 🇺🇸 USA | 1446 |
| 2 | Sandra Perkovic ğŸ‡ğŸ‡· CRO | 1426 |
| 3 | Kristin Pudenz 🇩🇪 GER | 1303 |
| 4 | Claudine Vita 🇩🇪 GER | 1286 |
| 5 | Jorinde van Klinken 🇳🇱 NED | 1285 |
World medallists
| 🥇 | Feng Bin 🇨🇳 CHN | 69.12m PB |
| 🥈 | Sandra Perkovic ğŸ‡ğŸ‡· CRO | 68.45m |
| 🥉 | Valarie Allman 🇺🇸 USA | 68.30m |
| Full results | ||
Major winners
World Championships: Feng Bin 🇨🇳 CHN 69.12m
African Championships: Chioma Onyekwere 🇳🇬 NGR 58.19m
European Championships: Sandra Perkovic ğŸ‡ğŸ‡· CRO 67.95m
NACAC Championships: Laulauga Tausaga 🇺🇸 USA 63.18m
Oceania Championships: Taryn Gollshewsky 🇦🇺 AUS 57.39m
Commonwealth Games: Chioma Onyekwere 🇳🇬 NGR 61.70m
Wanda Diamond League: Valarie Allman 🇺🇸 USA 67.77m
World U20 Championships: Emma Sralla 🇸🇪 SWE 56.15m
Season at a glance
Valarie Allman heads the season top list for the third consecutive year, the Olympic champion leading the way by more than two metres with the 71.46m North American record she set in La Jolla in April. The farthest throw in the world for almost 30 years, it moved her up to 15th on the world all-time list.
The US 27-year-old had been hoping to add a world title on home soil to the Olympic gold she claimed in Tokyo last year but it was China’s Feng Bin who prevailed in Oregon, launching the implement 69.12m to add more than three metres to her PB. That performance came in the very first round of the competition and she also surpassed her previous PB with 66.89m in the third round. Croatia’s Sandra Perkovic threw 68.45m to secure silver and Allman 68.30m to bag the bronze.
After her win, which Feng admitted she had not expected, she explained how her ambition is to become more consistent with her results. Consistency is something her fellow medallists have demonstrated frequently over the past few years and for Perkovic, claiming silver in Oregon saw her become the first woman to win five world medals in the event after her golds in 2013 and 2017, silver in 2015 and bronze in 2019.
The 32-year-old went on to claim a sixth European title – a record when it comes to individual gold medal wins at the event – thanks to a throw of 67.95m in Munich. She ended her season on a high, too, throwing her best of the year on home soil in Zagreb, 68.46m putting her third on the season top list behind Allman and Feng, and ahead of Kristin Pudenz and Jorinde van Klinken. They were among the 10 athletes who threw beyond 65 metres in 2022, compared to nine that achieved the feat in the last World Championships year in 2019.
Allman’s consistency saw her top the world rankings for the second year in a row, as she claimed Diamond League wins in Paris, Eugene and Birmingham as well as in the final in Zurich. Surpassing 68 metres in eight competitions, she achieved seven of the top 10 performances of the year.
Men’s discus
Season top list
| 71.47m | Daniel Stahl 🇸🇪 SWE | Uppsala | 21 June |
| 71.27m | Kristjan Ceh 🇸🇮 SLO | Birmingham | 21 May |
| 70.42m | Simon Pettersson 🇸🇪 SWE | Norrkoping | 6 August |
| 69.81m | Mykolas Alekna 🇱🇹 LTU | Stockholm | 30 June |
| 69.39m | Andrius Gudzius 🇱🇹 LTU | Kaunas | 17 May |
World Athletics rankings
| 1 | Kristjan Ceh 🇸🇮 SLO | 1485 |
| 2 | Mykolas Alekna 🇱🇹 LTU | 1402 |
| 3 | Daniel Stahl 🇸🇪 SWE | 1378 |
| 4 | Andrius Gudzius 🇱🇹 LTU | 1366 |
| 5 | Simon Pettersson 🇸🇪 SWE | 1338 |
World medallists
| 🥇 | Kristjan Ceh 🇸🇮 SLO | 71.13m CR |
| 🥈 | Mykolas Alekna 🇱🇹 LTU | 69.27m |
| 🥉 | Andrius Gudzius 🇱🇹 LTU | 67.55m |
| Full results | ||
Major winners
World Championships: Kristjan Ceh 🇸🇮 SLO 71.13m
African Championships: Werner Visser 🇿🇦 RSA 61.80m
European Championships: Mykolas Alekna 🇱🇹 LTU 69.78m
NACAC Championships: Traves Smikle 🇯🇲 JAM 62.89m
Oceania Championships: Connor Bell 🇳🇿 NZL 57.51m
Commonwealth Games: Matthew Denny 🇦🇺 AUS 67.26m
Wanda Diamond League: Kristjan Ceh 🇸🇮 SLO 67.10m
World U20 Championships: Marius Karges 🇩🇪 GER 65.55m
Season at a glance
For an impressive seventh year in a row, Sweden’s Daniel Stahl leads the season top list, but this time just 20cm separated him from the next best – Kristjan Ceh – and it was Ceh who claimed the world crown in Oregon.
When it comes to career head-to-heads, Stahl still leads the way, 13-10. But those 10 performances for Slovenia’s Ceh all came in 2022, a year in which he improved his PB by almost a metre to move to 10th on the world all-time list. That 71.27m throw, achieved in Birmingham in May, was also a Diamond League record.
He went on to claim further Diamond League wins in Rabat, Rome, Stockholm and Zurich for the Trophy, and became the first man to throw beyond 71 metres in three competitions within one season. That, together with his world title win, saw him top the world rankings ahead of Mykolas Alekna, and it was Alekna who handed Ceh one of only two defeats in 2022 – the Lithuanian getting gold at the European Championships in Munich.
Alekna – the son of 2000 and 2004 Olympic gold medallist Virgilijus – won the world U20 title last year and at the age of just 20 he became a senior world medallist, winning silver behind Ceh and ahead of his compatriot Andrius Gudzius in Oregon. There, Ceh with 71.13m added almost a metre to the championship record that had been set by Virgilijus Alekna in 2005 to lead the first World Championships final in which five men threw 67 metres or more. That was a mark surpassed by 10 athletes throughout 2022.
After winning the world title in 2019, gaining Olympic gold last year and securing world silver in 2017, Stahl missed out on a global podium place in 2022 but he wasn’t prepared to give up the top spot on the season list. The 30-year-old threw 71.47m in Uppsala in June, the second-best performance of his career behind the 71.86m that moved up to joint fourth on the world all-time list in 2019. He went beyond 70 metres in three competitions in 2022, while Ceh surpassed that mark in five contests.
Not since 2006 had more than two athletes launched the implement farther than 70 metres in the same season but Sweden’s Simon Pettersson completed the trio in 2022, throwing a PB of 70.42m in August.
Women’s hammer
Season top list
| 79.02m | Brooke Andersen 🇺🇸 USA | Tucson | 30 April |
| 78.06m | Anita Wlodarczyk 🇵🇱 POL | Nairobi | 7 May |
| 78.00m | Janee’ Kassanavoid 🇺🇸 USA | Tucson | 21 May |
| 77.67m | Camryn Rogers 🇨🇦 CAN | Eugene | 9 June |
| 75.77m | Sara Fantini 🇮🇹 ITA | Madrid | 18 June |
World Athletics rankings
| 1 | Brooke Andersen 🇺🇸 USA | 1414 |
| 2 | Janee’ Kassanavoid 🇺🇸 USA | 1359 |
| 3 | Camryn Rogers 🇨🇦 CAN | 1348 |
| 4 | Malwina Kopron 🇵🇱 POL | 1293 |
| 5 | Sara Fantini 🇮🇹 ITA | 1291 |
World medallists
| 🥇 | Brooke Andersen 🇺🇸 USA | 78.96m |
| 🥈 | Camryn Rogers 🇨🇦 CAN | 75.52m |
| 🥉 | Janee' Kassanavoid 🇺🇸 USA | 74.86m |
| Full results | ||
Major winners
World Championships: Brooke Andersen 🇺🇸 USA 78.96m
African Championships: Oyesade Olatoye 🇳🇬 NGR 63.67m
European Championships: Bianca Ghelber 🇷🇴 ROU 72.72m
NACAC Championships: Janee' Kassanavoid 🇺🇸 USA 71.51m
Oceania Championships: Nicole Bradley 🇳🇿 NZL 67.99m
Commonwealth Games: Camryn Rogers 🇨🇦 CAN 74.08m
World U20 Championships: Rachele Mori 🇮🇹 ITA 67.21m
Season at a glance
Each of the four women’s throws events had a US athlete top the respective season top list and in the hammer that leading spot was filled by Brooke Andersen. US throwers went one step further in this discipline, claiming not one but two places on the world podium – Andersen getting gold and Janee' Kassanavoid bronze as Canada’s Camryn Rogers completed a North American medal sweep with silver.
In that world final, Andersen threw 78.96m, just six centimetres off the world-leading PB of 79.02m she had set in April, while Rogers’ 75.52m saw her become Canada’s first world medallist in the event.
Poland’s world record-holder Anita Wlodarczyk was the world leader for six consecutive years between 2013 and 2018 and she secured second spot behind Andersen on that list in 2022 with the 78.06m throw she achieved in Nairobi in May. The three-time Olympic and four-time world gold medallist didn’t have the opportunity to try and build on that mark at the World Championships, however, as her season was cut short when she sustained a muscle injury while going after a thief who broke into her car.
Wlodarczyk has now surpassed 78 metres in nine different years and has thrown 78 metres or farther a total of 72 times.
Like last year, three athletes threw 78 metres or beyond during the season, Kassanavoid joining Andersen and Wlodarczyk with the 78.00m PB she achieved in May. Six athletes surpassed 75 metres, compared to 10 in 2021.
Andersen was beaten just twice in 2022 and that consistency helped her to top the world rankings, her performances also including wins at the US Championships and Continental Tour Gold meetings in Walnut and Szekesfehervar.
Men’s hammer
Season top list
| 82.00m | Wojciech Nowicki 🇵🇱 POL | Munich | 18 August |
| 81.98m | Pawel Fajdek 🇵🇱 POL | Eugene | 16 July |
| 81.12m | Valeriy Pronkin ⚪ ANA | Sochi | 13 February |
| 80.92m | Bence Halasz ğŸ‡ğŸ‡º HUN | Munich | 18 August |
| 80.87m | Eivind Henriksen 🇳🇴 NOR | Eugene | 16 July |
World Athletics rankings
| 1 | Wojciech Nowicki 🇵🇱 POL | 1442 |
| 2 | Pawel Fajdek 🇵🇱 POL | 1433 |
| 3 | Bence Halasz ğŸ‡ğŸ‡º HUN | 1371 |
| 4 | Quentin Bigot 🇫🇷 FRA | 1353 |
| 5 | Eivind Henriksen 🇳🇴 NOR | 1351 |
World medallists
| 🥇 | Pawel Fajdek 🇵🇱 POL | 81.98m |
| 🥈 | Wojciech Nowicki 🇵🇱 POL | 81.03m |
| 🥉 | Eivind Henriksen 🇳🇴 NOR | 80.87m |
| Full results | ||
Major winners
World Championships: Pawel Fajdek 🇵🇱 POL 81.98m
African Championships: Allan Cumming 🇿🇦 RSA 69.13m
European Championships: Wojciech Nowicki 🇵🇱 POL 82.00m
NACAC Championships: Rudy Winkler 🇺🇸 USA 78.29m
Oceania Championships: Ned Weatherly 🇦🇺 AUS 69.09m
Commonwealth Games: Nick Miller 🇬🇧 GBR 76.43m
World U20 Championships: Ioannis Korakidis 🇬🇷 GRE 79.11m
Season at a glance
Since 2013 there has only been one athlete on top of the men’s world hammer podium – Poland’s Pawel Fajdek. The 33-year-old threw 81.98m – the best of all his world title-winning marks – in Oregon to claim his fifth successive title. That’s just one title off the all-time record for the number of world gold medals won in a single discipline and Fajdek aims to emulate that feat, achieved by pole vault great Sergey Bubka, in Budapest next year. He also has his eye on the championship record of 83.63m.
But in Oregon his 81.98m was more than enough to see him triumph again ahead of his compatriot Wojciech Nowicki, who would go on to replace Fajdek at the top of the season list by throwing two centimetres farther to win the European title in Munich.
It is the fourth time that Fajdek and Nowicki fill the top two spots on the season list and the 2022 list is one of impressive depth, as a total of seven athletes surpassed 80 metres for the first time since 2011. Among them is Bence Halasz, who will also look to make an impact at next year’s World Athletics Championships, taking place in his home country of Hungary.
As he did in Tokyo last year, Norway’s Eivind Henriksen joined Nowicki and Fajdek on a global podium, claiming world bronze in Oregon after winning Olympic silver in a competition won by Nowicki.
Women’s javelin
Season top list
| 68.11m | Kara Winger 🇺🇸 USA | Brussels | 2 September |
| 66.91m | Kelsey-Lee Barber 🇦🇺 AUS | Eugene | 22 July |
| 66.19m | Tatsiana Khaladovich 🇧🇾 BLR | Brest | 13 July |
| 65.81m | Elina Tzengko 🇬🇷 GRE | Munich | 20 August |
| 65.73m | Maggie Malone 🇺🇸 USA | Burnaby | 14 June |
World Athletics rankings
| 1 | Kara Winger 🇺🇸 USA | 1378 |
| 2 | Kelsey-Lee Barber 🇦🇺 AUS | 1362 |
| 3 | Haruka Kitaguchi 🇯🇵 JPN | 1353 |
| 4 | Mackenzie Little 🇦🇺 AUS | 1290 |
| 5 | Elina Tzengko 🇬🇷 GRE | 1268 |
World medallists
| 🥇 | Kelsey-Lee Barber 🇦🇺 AUS | 66.91m |
| 🥈 | Kara Winger 🇺🇸 USA | 64.05m |
| 🥉 | Haruka Kitaguchi 🇯🇵 JPN | 63.27m |
| Full results | ||
Major winners
World Championships: Kelsey-Lee Barber 🇦🇺 AUS 66.91m
African Championships: Jo-Ane van Dyk 🇿🇦 RSA 60.65m
European Championships: Elina Tzengko 🇬🇷 GRE 65.81m
NACAC Championships: Kara Winger 🇺🇸 USA 64.68m
Oceania Championships: Mackenzie Little 🇦🇺 AUS 63.18m
Commonwealth Games: Kelsey-Lee Barber 🇦🇺 AUS 64.43m
Wanda Diamond League: Kara Winger 🇺🇸 USA 64.98m
World U20 Championships: Adriana Vilagos 🇷🇸 SRB 63.52m
Season at a glance
Kelsey-Lee Barber made history in Oregon, becoming the first woman to win back-to-back world javelin titles. In Doha in 2019 the Australian threw 66.56m to get gold and in Oregon she added 35cm to that mark, launching the spear 66.91m to secure her place on top of the podium ahead of USA’s Kara Winger and Japan’s Haruka Kitaguchi.
The performance was Barber’s second-best ever, behind only the 67.70m she achieved in Lucerne in 2019.
While Barber won the world title ahead of Winger, the pair switched places when it comes to the season top list – Winger ending the year as No.1 thanks to the US record of 68.11m she threw to win the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Brussels, a mark that added almost a metre and a half to her previous best, recorded in 2010. That ended up being just one of many impressive performances achieved by Winger in 2022, a year she had already decided would be her last in the sport. She retires on a high, having also won the Diamond Trophy in Zurich and the NACAC title, as well as securing that silver – her first global medal – in Oregon.
Those results, together with her win at the US Championships, helped Winger to also lead the world rankings ahead of Barber, Kitaguchi, her Australian compatriot Mackenzie Little and Elina Tzengko of Greece, who went from European U20 champion in 2021 to senior continental gold medallist in 2022.
Tzengko and USA’s Maggie Malone were among those to surpass 65 metres during the season, while Tatsiana Khaladovich joined Winger and Barber in going beyond 66 metres.
A total of 42 athletes broke the 60-metre mark, compared to 45 in 2021 and 28 in 2019.
Like senior winner Barber, Serbia’s Adriana Vilagos also claimed back-to-back world titles, winning the U20 honour in Cali after triumphing in Nairobi last year. She also secured European silver at senior level and ended the year being voted World Athletics Rising Star.
Men’s javelin
Season top list
| 93.07m | Anderson Peters 🇬🇩 GRN | Doha | 13 May |
| 90.88m | Jakub Vadlejch 🇨🇿 CZE | Doha | 13 May |
| 90.18m | Arshad Nadeem 🇵🇰 PAK | Birmingham | 7 August |
| 89.94m | Neeraj Chopra 🇮🇳 IND | Stockholm | 30 June |
| 89.83m | Oliver Helander 🇫🇮 FIN | Turku | 14 June |
World Athletics rankings
| 1 | Anderson Peters 🇬🇩 GRN | 1456 |
| 2 | Neeraj Chopra 🇮🇳 IND | 1437 |
| 3 | Jakub Vadlejch 🇨🇿 CZE | 1418 |
| 4 | Julian Weber 🇩🇪 GER | 1381 |
| 5 | Keshorn Walcott 🇹🇹 TTO | 1298 |
World medallists
| 🥇 | Anderson Peters 🇬🇩 GRN | 90.46m |
| 🥈 | Neeraj Chopra 🇮🇳 IND | 88.13m |
| 🥉 | Jakub Vadlejch 🇨🇿 CZE | 88.09m |
| Full results | ||
Major winners
World Championships: Anderson Peters 🇬🇩 GRN 90.46m
African Championships: Julius Yego 🇰🇪 KEN 79.62m
European Championships: Julian Weber 🇩🇪 GER 87.66m
NACAC Championships: Curtis Thompson 🇺🇸 USA 84.32m
Oceania Championships: Cruz Hogan 🇦🇺 79.25m
Commonwealth Games: Arshad Nadeem 🇵🇰 PAK 90.18m
Wanda Diamond League: Neeraj Chopra 🇮🇳 IND 88.44m
World U20 Championships: Artur Felfner 🇺🇦 UKR 79.36m
Season at a glance
Like Kelsey-Lee Barber, Anderson Peters retained his world javelin title in Oregon, becoming only the second man after the great Jan Zelezny to achieve the feat. That was only part of the Grenadian’s success story in 2022, though, as two months earlier he had become the fifth-best men’s javelin thrower of all time, sending his spear soaring beyond 93 metres – 93.07m to be exact – at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Doha.
The 25-year-old had entered that competition with a PB of 87.31m set in 2019 but he ended it with a North & Central American and Caribbean record almost six metres further. He celebrated by doing a dance.
Czech Republic’s Jakub Vadlejch was the athlete to get closest to that mark in 2022 and he also did so in Doha, throwing a PB of 90.88m to finish second. Joining them in going beyond 90 metres was Arshad Nadeem, who threw a national and Games record of 90.18m to claim the Commonwealth title in Birmingham. It was Pakistan’s first Commonwealth Games gold in athletics for 60 years.
Peters was rewarded for his consistency and world title win, and topped the world rankings as a result, while India’s Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra was just behind him thanks to performances including his silver medal win in Oregon and Diamond Trophy win in Zurich.
In Oregon, Peters managed three throws beyond 90 metres, topped by the 90.54m he achieved in the final round.
In total, 2022 saw Peters surpass the 90-metre mark in four competitions and he bettered his pre-2022 best of 87.31m 17 times.
Three athletes went beyond 90 metres for the first time since 2018, while seven athletes beyond 89 metres is record depth.
World Athletics
