Canada’s Camryn Rogers wins gold at World Athletics Championships

Canada has won its second medal at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, and once again, it’s gold–and once again, it’s in the hammer throw event. Camryn Rogers of Richmond, B.C., who won silver at last year’s world championships in Eugene, Ore., has taken the gold, achieving 77.22 metres in her first throw on Thursday, hanging on for the win.

Earlier this week, Ethan Katzberg of Nanaimo, B.C., won gold in the men’s hammer throw, scoring a personal best and national record of 81.25 metres.

Rogers’s throw was almost a metre farther than silver medallist Janee’ Kassanavoid of the U.S. (76.36 metres). DeAnna Price of the U.S. took bronze, with 75.41 metres.

The victory was far from assured for Rogers, whose season has not gone as well as she might have hoped, though she was still a favourite to reach the podium in Budapest; she produced better results than anyone else in the field on four of her throws.

“Every single competition is an opportunity to learn and do better,” says Rogers in a post-race interview. “Being able to go into worlds last year and win silver was incredibly helpful, and now to stand here with this gold– it means the world.”

Her silver medal at last year’s world championships was the first-ever medal in the sport for Canada, and since last year, Canadian hammer throwers have earned two world championship golds, as well as a silver for Jillian Weir at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

Photo: James Rhodes (@jrhodesathletics)

These are Canada’s first two medals of the games, though there are several events still to come in which Canada has potential medal contenders; these include the men’s 200m final on Friday with Andre De Grasse, the men’s 800m final on Saturday with Marco Arop, the men’s 4x100m relay (heats go Friday morning) and the decathlon (with Damian Warner and Pierce LePage), which starts Friday.

The 2023 World Athletics Championships are taking place from August 19-27 at the National Stadium in Budapest, Hungary. All the action will be brought to you by Canadian Running and Asics Canada. Follow us on Twitter on Instagram for all things Team Canada and up-to-date exclusive news and content.