6 Cal Alumni To Compete At World Athletics Championships

Camryn Rogers, who won three NCAA hammer titles at Cal and ranks fifth in World history, will need to fend off three of the top-four throwers on the all-time list to maintain her title.

T&F9/11/2025 2:42 PM | By: Cal Athletics

Camryn Rogers Seeks To Defend 2023 Hammer Title

Six alumni of the California track & field team will close out their 2025 season over the next several days at Tokyo’s National Stadium, joining a group of over 2,000 of the world’s top athletes from approximately 200 countries to seek glory at the World Athletics Championships. Forty-nine events will be contested across nine days from Sept. 13-21, with the full slate of competition set to show on Peacock and select events on CNBC.
 

Canadian Olympic hammer champion Camryn Rogers, who won her first world title two years ago, will look to defend her crown against some of the best throwers in history. The United States’ Brooke Anderson has thrown the farthest distance of any competitor this season with a mark of 79.29m (260-1), one spot ahead of Rogers’ PR and new Canadian record of 78.88m (258-9) thrown in July. Americans Rachel Richeson (78.80m/258-6) and DeAnna Price (78.53m/257-7), the latter of whom claimed gold at the USA Track & Field Championships in July, have likewise crossed the 78-meter barrier this season, while world record-holder Anita Wlodarczyk of Poland, who has a PR of 82.98m (272-3), will appear in her seventh World Championships. Rogers will be joined in the hammer field by former Cal teammate and two-time British Champion Anna Purchase, who likewise made the World Championships final in 2023 and has a best mark this year of 72.96m (239-4), just two inches behind her personal best of 73.02m (239-6). On the men’s side, 2024 NCAA Champion and Olympic Finalist Rowan Hamilton will enter a stacked field that includes fellow Canadian Ethan Katzberg, the reigning World and Olympic champion with a personal best of 84.38m (276-10), 2024 Olympic silver medalist Bence Halász of Hungary (83.18m/272-10) and American record-holder Rudy Winkler (83.16m/272-10).
 
Discus world record-holder Mykolas Alekna, who graduated from Cal this past spring, is fresh off his first Diamond League title and seeks his first gold medal on the senior world stage. He previously claimed silver in…