Priceless

DeAnna Price Makes Hammer History

by Mark Cullen

Copyright 2019 Mark Cullen and Trackerati.com. All rights Reserved.

DeAnna Price (US) and Joanna Fiodorow (Pol)
celebrate their gold and silver hammer throw medals.
Photo credit: Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images for IAAF

DeAnna Price turned her steel hammer into gold Saturday night at Khalifa Stadium as she won the first global hammer title by a US woman.


So dominant was she in winning Worlds that both her first and third round throws of 76.87 (252-2) and 77.54 (254-5) would have won the competition. Only Joanna Fiodorow's well-timed PB of 76.35 (250-6) was within 1.5 meters of Price's winner.

Next farthest was China’s Zheng Wang’s 5th round 74.76 (245-3), which clinched bronze for her after Moldova’s Zalina Petrivskaya had held third place since the first round. Gold and bronze were separated by a substantial 2.8m (9’ 2¼”).

It was an epic day for US hammer throwing. Since the women’s hammer was added to the the World Championships calendar in 1999 and the Olympic calendar in 2000, no US woman had ever medaled.

Price’s championship is emblematic of the US rise into one of the top
women’s hammer countries in the world.

How far has the US come?

Most remarkable of all is that the 2019 USATF championship final was deeper than Worlds. In 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th places, each place-winning mark in Des Moines was farther than in Doha.

“It feels absolutely amazing, having the chance to represent my country, to bring back that gold medal home and to my family,” said Price.

“This was the best timing to improve the personal record,” said an overjoyed Fiodorow. “I managed to improve, got silver, my first world medal, I cannot ask for more. I was trying to beat DeAnna until the very end but I knew she had better personal best and that she was very strong. So it is time to celebrate.”

“Today I just wanted to perform well, I did not expect to win a medal,” said a surprised Zheng, whose greatest remaining challenge on this memorable day was finding “the time to think about how I will celebrate my medal.”

“In China we have excellent coaches and wonderful technique,” she said.  “We might not be as strong as Europeans, but we have a great technique.”

It showed tonight.

“It's never me, it's we,” said the new World champion. “We (are) all in this together. We are world champions,” she stated, emphatically, looking side-to-side at her fellow medalists.

“This is not country versus country. We are all trying to be the best that we can be and I just want to be a great athlete and a great person.”

Mission accomplished.

“I can't be more thankful for this chance and opportunity to be World champion this year.”