TOKYO – After a long, long season, perhaps it would have been enough for California track & field alumna Camryn Rogers to "merely" retain her World Championships title, returning to Tokyo's National Stadium for the first time since 2021 to face off against the globe's most dominant hammer throwers. On Monday, however, she was thinking bigger: the elusive 80-meter mark, which had been reached by just three women in history.
 
One hour and fifteen minutes later, she had officially achieved both.
 
Leading off the competition, Rogers needed just one throw (78.09m/256-2) to clinch victory, but it was her second attempt that was the highlight of the day: a huge personal best of 80.51m (264-1) that surpassed her previous Canadian record of 78.88m (258-9) by five feet, four inches. She had known it was a good one, shouting and pumping her arms after the hammer landed – but when the mark finally flashed on the board, Rogers gasped and fell to her knees, forehead touching the ground, anointed as the new No. 2 all-time women's hammer thrower.
 
After a visit to the stands (and what more could her coach say than "keep going"?), Rogers returned to the competition area, where she was greeted by the Polish World record-holder Anita Wlodarczyk and Italian Sara Fantini. The latter had a few words for her: "Let's do it. Not finished."
 
"Not finished," Rogers agreed, and let her face settle back into its usual in-competition stoicism.
 
Her third throw sailed 78.27m (256-9), followed by a foul just left of the sector and a fifth-round mark of 73.90m (242-5) that just clipped the right side of the cage. Attempt number six flew 79.11m (259-6) – a would-be personal best, were it not for Rogers' achievement four throws prior.
 
As that final throw soared through the air, Rogers raised both hands, then sank to her knees and clenched her fists as a huge grin erupted across her face. Rising back to her feet, she choked back tears as she walked out of the circle and into a procession of fierce hugs from her competitors before the gold medal was placed around her neck. She then darted to the stands, past the cameras and into the waiting arms of her teary-eyed supporters: her coach, three of her former Cal teammates, and her parents, who had traveled across the world to watch their daughter live her dream once more.
 
Rogers, who won the competition by over nine feet, is now just one of three women to win multiple World titles in the hammer throw and one of four to win three-or-more total medals, having earned silver at the 2022 World Championships.
 
World Athletics Championships – Women's Hammer Final Results
1. Camryn Rogers (Canada) 80.51m/264-1 – No. 2 All-time, Area Record, PR
2. Jie Zhao (China) 77.60m/254-7 – PR
3. Jiale Zhang (China) 77.10m/252-11
4. Silja Kosonen (Finland) 75.28m/246-11
5. DeAnna Price (USA) 75.10m/246-4
6. Anita Wlodarczyk (Poland) 74.64m/244-10
7. Sara Fantini (Italy) 73.06m/239-8 - SB
8. Katrine Koch Jacobsen (Denmark) 71.59m/234-10
9. Aileen Kuhn (Germany) 71.57m/234-9
10. Janee' Kassanavoid (USA) 70.35m/230-9
11. Nicola Tuthill (Ireland) 69.49m/228-0
- Krista Tervo (Finland) NM
 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                               
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