By Mitch Phillips TOKYO (Reuters) – American double Olympic discus champion Valarie Allman said she finally “feels complete” after claiming the world title that had proved so elusive when she took an emphatic gold in Tokyo with a throw of 69.48 metres on Sunday. Allman, who won Olympic gold in the same Tokyo stadium four […]
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Athletics-Allman finally gets world discus gold
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By Mitch Phillips
TOKYO (Reuters) – American double Olympic discus champion Valarie Allman said she finally “feels complete” after claiming the world title that had proved so elusive when she took an emphatic gold in Tokyo with a throw of 69.48 metres on Sunday.
Allman, who won Olympic gold in the same Tokyo stadium four years ago, had back-to-back bronzes in the world championships but was a class apart from the moment she opened Sunday’s proceedings with 67.63 metres.
She improved that with the winning throw in the fifth round while Jorinde van Klinken of the Netherlands took silver with 67.50 in her opening attempt. Silinda Morales of Cuba took a surprise bronze after a huge personal best throw of 67.25.
“It is a dream come true. The whole year I focused on these championships. Now I am here and I didn’t feel myself,” Allman said.
“The pressure, the nerves hit me but now everything has fallen off my shoulders. I keep looking at this medal and can’t believe it’s real. I would have liked to do a little bit better tonight. With all the preparations coming in here, I wished that I could threw 70 metres in the first throw because I know that I am capable of doing it. I found myself in a position where I was vulnerable.
“It was good to see my throws clicked eventually, even though it was not how I planned it. In round three I realised my energy, my attitude needed to change, but performing in front of 50,000 people brings magic.”
Allman won the first of her two Olympic titles in Tokyo, but of course there were no fans because of the COVID pandemic.
“To have it be in the city where I got to become an Olympic champion for the first time and now a world champion is just such a full-circle moment.
“I didn’t realise before how much I wanted to become the world champion. There was a part of me that felt incomplete. I am ending years of struggling for this gold. I definitely still have a lot more in the tank.”
Van Klinken, a rare athlete who competes in discus and shot put, was over the moon with her first global medal. “It is really hard to understand what I just did but I am very proud,” she said. “I always love competing at the world championships and it is amazing that it ended this way tonight.”
“The whole world really wants me to focus on only one event but I really don’t,” said Van Klinken, who won European silvers in both last year. “I really enjoy both events and the fact that I can think about different things. It keeps it really fun for me. I think I can be a global medallist in both.”
Sweden’s Vanessa Kamga threw a national record 66.61 but it was good enough only for fourth. American Olympic champion Laulauga Tausaga finished sixth with a best of 65.49.
(Reporting by Mitch Phillips, additional reporting by Kim Chang-Ran, editing by Clare Fallon)