- Olympic champion Valarie Allman hasn’t lost a competition in two years as she chases her first world title
- Laulauga Tausaga defends the world title she won in Budapest
- Two-time world champion Sandra Elkasevic, 35, seeks her sixth medal at her seventh World Championships
Two-time Olympic champion Valarie Allman will have to break a curse to win the world title in Tokyo. How else to explain the anomaly that she has yet to claim the world crown, despite her utter domination of the discus over the past five years.
In addition to her Olympic gold medals in Tokyo and Paris, she has won five consecutive Wanda Diamond League titles and has not lost a single competition in the past two years. That includes 13 consecutive victories this year, one of which – her world-leading throw of 73.52m in Ramona – was the biggest throw in the world for more than 35 years.
In every other arena she has reigned supreme, but not at the World Championships, or not yet.
Allman has twice stepped on to the podium, to collect the bronze medal in Oregon in 2022, and the silver medal in Budapest in 2023, in what was a huge upset as her younger teammate Laulauga Tausaga produced the throw of her life to snatch the gold.
But each time that Allman has been disappointed at this level, she has come back stronger, and it is unlikely that she will be denied a third time in Tokyo, as she returns to the stadium where she won her first Olympic gold medal.
This year’s performance list would suggest that a US podium sweep could be on the cards, but that may be deceptive, as the list is dominated by performances produced in Ramona, Oklahoma, also known as ‘Throw Town’ for the favourable wind conditions it offers discus throwers.
The best performances of the top three entrants for Tokyo were all set there: Allman’s world lead, Tausanga’s 70.72m and Gabi Jacobs’ 68.21m.
Allman backs up her season’s best with a series of 70-plus throws in other venues, including a 71.45m performance to win the US title in August, and Tausaga is the defending world champion, but beyond them, there are a range of podium contenders.
The German duo of Shanice Craft (68.10m this year) and 2021 Olympic silver medallist Kristin Pudenz (67.61m this year) are in the mix, as well as Dutchwoman Jorinde van Klinken (67.15m), who finished second to Allman in Zurich to underline her credentials.
The ageless two-time Olympic and double world champion Sandra Elkasevic has passed her peak but can’t be discounted in her seventh World Championships appearance after taking Olympic bronze in Paris last year, and nor can China’s perennial contender Feng Bin.
Despite a modest season’s best of 64.19m (outside the top 20 this year), the 2022 world champion Feng has a personal best of 69.12m and has been on the podium at the past three global championships, most recently earning silver in Paris.
Allman says she is looking forward to testing herself against such a strong field.
“That is what I love – to show up and see what you are capable of against your competitors,” she said in Zurich. “I feel that the battle that we will have in Tokyo will be so memorable, to have that full circle moment to go back there after my first Olympic Games.”
The former dancer plans to “execute at my best in Tokyo”, which should be enough to waltz away with that long-awaited world title.
Nicole Jeffery for World Athletics