Olympic, World champions top the bill at USATF Throws Festival

INDIANAPOLIS – Five returning champions highlight star-studded fields for Saturday's USATF Throws Festival at the University of Arizona's Drachman Stadium in Tucson. The event has steadily grown in stature and annually attracts many of the top throws athletes in the world. This year's meet is part of the World Athletics Continental Tour - Silver, and offers thousands of dollars in prize money in addition to valuable World Athletics rankings points.
 
2022 World Championships gold medalist Brooke Andersen and bronze medalist Janee' Kassanavoid top a women's hammer field that also features the third Team USATF member from last year's Worlds, Annette Echikunwoke. Andersen leads this year's world list with a best of 79.80m/261-10, a mark that ranks her as the No. 3 all-time world performer. Kassanavoid opened her season last weekend with a win at the Nairobi Continental Tour meet in Kenya and is No. 6 on the all-time world performer list.
 
Competition in the men's hammer will be just as stout with American record holder and defending champion Rudy Winkler bringing a 2023 best of 78.01m/255-11. Mexico's Diego Del Real was the runner-up last year and was fourth at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, while Alex Young was a World Championships finalist in Eugene and placed fifth here last year. The No. 7 all-time U.S. performer, Sean Donnelly was fourth in 2022 and has a PB of 79.27m/260-1.
 
Sam Mattis set a big lifetime best of 68.69m/225-4 to win the men's discus here in 2022 and has already had a big throw this season with a 67.49m/221-5 to win the Triton Invitational in La Jolla in early April. He was third at the Doha Diamond League meet on May 5 and placed 11th at the World Championships in Eugene. The eighth-place finisher from Eugene, Alex Rose of Samoa, surpassed 70m in Oklahoma last month and is third on the world list for 2023 at 70.39m/230-11. Other top American contenders include World Championships team members Andrew Evans, the reigning USATF champion, and Brian Williams.
 
New Zealand's Tom Walsh, the No. 6 all-time world performer,  won the men's shot put world title in 2017 and has two Olympic bronze medals to go with two World Indoor golds. He won here last year and will face Americans Tripp Piperi, the eighth-place finisher at last summer's World Championships, and Darrell Hill, who was fifth at the 2019 World Championships and is ninth on the all-time U.S. performer list at 22.44m/73-7.5. Tokyo Olympics 10th-place finisher Payton Otterdahl set his PB of 21.92m/71-11 at the 2021 U.S. Olympic Trials, and Roger Steen was fifth at the USATF meet last year. Nigeria's Chuk Enekwechi joins the lineup as a finalist at Eugene in 2022.
 
In the women's shot put, returning champion Danniel Thomas-Dodd of Jamaica was the 2019 World Championships silver medalist and has a best of 19.52m/64-0.5 this season. Maggie Ewen was fourth behind Thomas-Dodd at that meet in 2019 and was ninth at Eugene last summer. She has thrown 19.45m/63-9.75 thus far. Eighth at the World Championships, Jessica Woodard set her PB of 19.40m/63-7.75 to place third at the USATF Championships. Two-time NCAA indoor and outdoor champion Adelaide Aquilla, the USATF runner-up in 2022, made the Olympic and World Championships teams the past two years and won her first meet as a post-collegian at the Gaborone Continental Tour meeting in Botswana last month. Canada's Sarah Mitton placed second in 2022 and was fourth at the World Championships. She has the best career mark in the field at 20.33m/66-8.5.
 
Olympic champion Shiying Liu of China has a PB of 67.29m/220-9 and heads a women's javelin contingent that includes last year's third-place finisher, Ariana Ince. Ince was an Olympian at Tokyo and was the Pan American Games bronze medalist in 2019 after winning the USATF title. She also represented Team USATF at three World Championships and has thrown 64.38m/211-3. Former American record holder Maggie Malone was an Olympic finalist at Tokyo and has two wins to her credit in 2023. Malone's lifetime best is 67.40m/221-1, which is tops in this field.
 
NACAC men's javelin champion Curtis Thompson was the USATF runner-up in 2022 and placed 11th at the World Championships. He set a lifetime best of 87.70m/287-9 last year to move to No. 3 on the all-time U.S. performer list, and took fourth in the Diamond League final. USATF champion Ethan Dabbs is another top contender who was the NCAA silver medalist last year, while Michael Shuey was an Olympian in 2021 and has a PB of 85.67m/281-1 to rank fifth on the all-time U.S. performer list. David Carreon of Mexico and Donavon Banks were third and fourth here in 2022.
 
Last year's USATF women's discus runner-up Lagi Tausauga was 12th at the World Championships and then picked up NACAC gold before taking sixth at the Diamond League final. She will face Nigeria's Chioma Onyekwere, last year's runner-up and a World Championships qualifier in 2022. U.S. Olympic Trials runner-up Micaela Hazlewood returns after a truncated 2022 season, and Elena Bruckner has recorded a pair of personal bests this season, including a 61.51m/201-9 at the Mt. SAC Relays. Former Cuban Yaimé Pérez earned bronze at the Tokyo Games and was the 2019 world champion. The three-time Olympian defected to the U.S. after last summer's World Championships and has a PB of 69.39m/227-8 from 2019.
 
In addition to the throwing events there is a pair of intriguing high jump competitions on the schedule. Vashti Cunningham, the dominant force in American women's jumping since 2016 with a dozen national titles, has already navigated 2.00m/6-6.75 this year. Her main challengers should be Jelena Rowe, who set her PB of 1.96m/6-5 at this facility in 2021, and 2019 NCAA indoor and outdoor champion Zarriea Willis. Darius Carbin was a men's World Championships qualifier in 2022, and Darryl Sullivan finished 10th at the 2022 World Indoor Championships after an Olympic berth in 2021. Those two will go up against India's Tejaswin Shankar, the NCAA champion for Kansas State last year and a bronze medalist at the Commonwealth Games.