Kitaguchi to Defend Javelin Title Amidst Fierce Competition at World Athletics Championships Tokyo 25
TOKYO, JAPAN - All eyes will be on reigning world and olympic champion Haruka Kitaguchi as she prepares to defend her title on home soil at the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 25, despite battling a recent elbow injury. The 27-year-old Japanese star, who made history as the first Japanese woman to win a global medal in a throwing event (bronze in 2022, gold in 2023) and then secured Japan’s sole athletics gold at the Paris 2024 olympics, enters the competition with the weight of a nation’s expectations.Kitaguchi returned to competition after a two-month break, throwing 50.93m at the Diamond League meeting in Lausanne in late August. She demonstrated significant progress at the Diamond League Final in Zurich, achieving a throw of 60.72m – a positive step towards regaining her season’s best of 64.63m, set with her Oslo victory prior to the injury.
However,kitaguchi faces a formidable field led by Austria’s Victoria Hudson,who currently tops the 2025 world list with a national record throw of 67.76m achieved at the European Team Championships in Maribor. The 29-year-old European champion from Rome last year will be looking to improve upon her Olympic games performance where she failed to reach the final.
Close behind is Serbia’s Adriana vilagos, who holds the second-best throw of the year at 67.22m, also a national record. Vilagos secured European silver behind Hudson in 2023 and recently finished second at the Diamond league Final with a 62.96m throw, signaling her medal potential.Greece’s Elina Tzengko, the 2022 European champion, arrives in Tokyo with strong form, having won the Diamond League title with a throw of 64.57m. She also secured victories in Rabat, Xiamen, and Keqiao earlier in the season, consistently exceeding 64 metres. Norway’s Sigrid Borge is also a contender, sitting just ahead of Tzengko on the world list with a season’s best of 65.66m.Other athletes to watch include Colombia’s Flor Denis Ruiz, the surprise silver medallist from the 2023 World Championships (62.04m season’s best), and South Africa’s Jo-Ane Du Plesis, who claimed Olympic silver last year (62.77m season’s best). Australia will be represented by 2023 bronze medallist Mackenzie Little and Lianna Davidson, while Uruguay’s manuela Rotundo and Chinese duo Dai Qianqian and Su Lingdan also aim to make their mark.
Andjela Cegar for World Athletics
