Price smashes previous world mark by 16 inches with 85-4.50 (26.02m) performance at USATF Indoor Championships in Albuquerque, highlighting deepest competition in event history with six of top 11 all-time performers
By David Woods for DyeStat
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – This might not be your idea of a Valentine’s Day gift, but it brought joy to DeAnna Price.
J.C. Lambert, her husband and coach, gave her a weight covered in red, white and blue.
Romance is different in the throwing world. But love – and a 20-pound ball of molded lead – was in the air Friday.
Price threw the weight farther than any woman in history. In fact, the 29-year-old Price did so twice in what was surely the greatest competition ever in an event not often contested outside North America.
Yet this is not obscure: The field featured three hammer throw world medalists and co-holder of the previous-best global all-time mark. And Price won. Crushed everyone, really, at the USAT Indoor Championships.
She reached 84-6.75 (25.77m) in the third round, then became the first to exceed 26 meters with a distance of 85-4.50 (26.02m) in the fifth.
“It’s an insane number, honestly,” said Brooke Andersen, the reigning hammer World champion.
“If anyone was going to do it today, DeAnna looked ready to go, right off the gate. I’m not surprised she hit it.”
Also insane: Four women over 80 feet, six over 79 feet. Andersen (81-11.25/24.97m) was second, Rachel Tanczos (80-7.75/24.58m) third and Annette Echikunwoke (80-7/24.56m) fourth.
Janeah Stewart, a two-time U.S. champion who shared the previous world-best 84 feet (25.60m) with Gwen Berry, was sixth at 79-4.75 (24.20m). Stewart said she thought it would take a world record to win Friday.
Price acknowledged: “We knew something big was in the tank.”
That’s because she was throwing a 25-pound weight in practice farther than she ever had.
It was more than that, though. It was a redemptive victory after her tank of emotions was emptied in 2022.
After the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, Price had ankle reconstruction and hip labrum surgeries. Nine months later, she was fourth at USAs and was qualified for World Championships as defending gold medalist. However, she missed Oregon22 after coming down with COVID-19. She lost 13 pounds in three days.
“It kind of broke my heart. It actually did,” Price said.
Rehab and resumption of training were excruciating. She said she would feel “fantastic” one day, then be unable to walk the next.
She had…
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