Kara Winger earns highest placing in a major international with fifth place finish at world champs...
Winger, the Skyview HS and Purdue University grad who’s been a mainstay on numerous world championship and Olympic teams, threw 206-3 (62.88m) in round 3 to put herself in fifth place to assure herself three more throws and a spot in the final eight.
After a foul in round 4, she threw her best mark of 207-5 (63.23m) in the fifth frame, before finishing the day with a throw of 204-9 (62.40m).
Kelsey Barber of Australia took the victory with a best of 218-4 (66.56m), followed by Shiying Liu (216-2/65.88m) and Huihui Lyu (214-10/65.49m).
Her highest previous finish at either the world championships or Olympics was an eighth place finish at the 2015 world championships in Beijing, where she threw 199-9 (60.88m).
In a text afterwards to publisher Paul Merca, Winger said, "I’m being a typical never-satisfied athlete about it in that I’m disappointed that I wasn’t good technically again. There is a lot that I did well at PanAms and The Match that didn’t show up tonight, and I’ll just have to chalk that up to nerves and trying too hard. I’m so thrilled with my championship season overall."
"Missing the Diamond League Final this year and really struggling to feel like myself for a while ended up being really good for me. It’s awesome to feel like I truly belong in a major championship final for maybe the first time ever, and that is all due to Jamie Myers’ programming and Dana Lyon’s technical coaching. I LOVED feeling strong and confident in the last few months, and I’m so happy to absolutely trust my system," adding that throwing the javelin feels fun again.
Earlier in the evening, University of Washington alum Gianna Woodruff, representing Panama, advanced to her second straight world championships semifinal, running 56.07 in the 400 hurdles to finish fourth in her heat.
While it was just off her season best time of 55.91 set in late July, it was good enough to advance to Wednesday’s semifinals (top 4 in each of the 5 first round heats, plus 4 fastest time qualifiers), slated to start at 9:05pm local time (11:05 am in Seattle).
Her heat was won by American training partner and current world record holder Dalilah Muhammad, who ran 54.87, the third fastest time of the day.
In addition to Woodruff on Wednesday, University of Washington volunteer coach Tim Duckworth of Great Britain starts the first of two days in the decathlon competition, and former Renton resident Devon Allen runs in the semifinals of the men’s 110 hurdles, in hopes of qualifying for the finals later in the evening.
Complete day 5 results of the IAAF World Track & Field Championships are available here.
NOTE: The IAAF and USA Track & Field contributed to this report.
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