Canadian wins title with 76.97m and says it was “a moment of do or die” if she wanted to strike victory
European athletes have dominated the women’s hammer since it was introduced into the Olympic programme in Sydney 24 years ago. But Camryn Rogers of Canada struck victory for North America in Paris on Tuesday (Aug 6).
Poland has dominated the event lately, winning four of the last six titles, with world record holder Anita Wlodarczyk taking three of those. But world champion Rogers proving she is the new No.1.
During the competition Rogers overtook Annette Nneka Echikunwoke of the United States with her fifth-round throw of 76.97m to claim gold.
Echikunwoke held on for silver thanks to her third-round throw of 75.48m with Zhao Jie of China taking bronze with 74.27m.
“To be on that podium and to hear the national anthem, it’s something that I feel like I’ve dreamed of for so long,” said Rogers. “I started throwing 12-and-a-half years ago. That summer was the London 2012 Olympics. Watching our Canadian women out there, doing their absolute best and representing our country so well. I knew I wanted to be here one day.”
Te 25-year-old added: “To be here, and to be on that podium, to make my family proud – they’ve flown all the way here from Richmond (British Columbia, Canada), from Vancouver, from New Zealand, from California.
“Everything’s culminated to this moment. I’m so happy to share it with them. I also heard someone screaming the anthem in the audience, and I thought that was just so awesome.
“Coming into this final was, to have the experience that I’ve had, the highs and the lows, it’s all learning moments. Coming to this moment, getting to that fifth round, it’s a moment of do or die.
“To be able to do it when it counts, in that throw, to see my coach cheering from the stands, it’s like, ‘okay, I think we did it’. To see the mark pop up – this is the kind of thing we’ve been training for, fighting for, I’m just glad I was able to make him proud in that moment of having all of our training lead to this.”
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