■Athletics Diamond League Final Brussels Tournament, Day 2 (15th Japan time, Belgium)

In the final, which is open to only the top performers in the Diamond League (DL), which brings together the world’s best athletes, Haruka Kitaguchi (26, JAL), a gold medalist in the women’s javelin at the Paris Olympics™, won with a season’s best throw of 66.13 meters, becoming the annual queen for the second consecutive year.

At the DL Brussels tournament last September, he won with a new Japanese record of 67.38m. In this memorable place, Kitaguchi’s first throw was 61.28m, placing him in second place, and his second throw was 65.08m. After the throw, Kitaguchi, smiling, took the lead. However, in the final throw, a Serbian athlete threw 65.28m, leaving Kitaguchi in second place. In his final throw, he called for the crowd to applaud him, and with that, he threw 66.13m, his best throw of the season, to take the victory in a spectacular comeback.

Regarding his final sixth throw, which put him in a position to catch up, Kitaguchi said, “I thought it was my last throw of the season, so I threw it well so that I could get a better record.” With the World Championships in Athletics to be held in Tokyo next September in Athletics, he said enthusiastically, “I want to do my best so that I can throw well in front of the Japanese people.”

Kitaguchi made history this summer by becoming the first woman to win a gold medal in a track and field event at the Paris Olympics. She also won a gold medal at last year’s World Championships in Athletics in Budapest and has been selected to represent Japan at the Tokyo 2025 World Championships.