Kelsey-Lee Barber defended her world javelin title

The Australian athlete Kelsey-Lee Barber defended her world javelin title at the World Athletics Championships in Eugene with a season’s world best of 66.91m.

Second was American Kara Winger with 64.05m, and third was Japanese Haruka Kitaguchi with 63.27m.

“I have definitely dreamt of this moment. It’s one thing to win it once, but to go back-to-back is totally different. And I’ll be honest in saying I wanted to do it, I’ve wanted it for a really long time. It’s part of my dreams within this sport”, said Kelsey-Lee Barber. “About a month ago I nailed it down,” Barber said. “I was chatting to [coach and husband] Mike [Barber] and said ‘I can do this, I can win the world championship’. That self-belief just really drove my training and it didn’t falter form there”, added she.

Thus, Kelsey-Lee Barber joins Cathy Freeman as the only Australians to defend a world title.

Kelsey-Lee Barber won gold at the 2019 World Championships, and her personal best of 67.70 m ranks her 13th in the overall list. She also has silver medal from the Commonwealth Games in 2018 and the bronze from Tokyo 2020 Olympics.