Two World Hammer Champions Return to Tokyo

Women’s Hammer Throw

2025 USATF Championships 

By Mark Cullen

In one of the finest series in US history, 2019 World Champion DeAnna Price dominated the field to win the USATF title and lead a deep US hammer squad to Tokyo’s World Championships. She averaged over 77 meters (252-7) for each of her throws in a six-throw series.

Price opened at 78.33 (257-0) and was never headed. Five of her six throws would have won the competition. She saved her best for last with the farthest of the day, a magnificently elegant, arcing 78.53 (257-7).

 “It's wonderful,” said Price of her remarkable series. “It’s right up there, right next to the Olympic Trials in 2021,” when she averaged over 78 meters per throw with five fair throws.

DeAnna Price

2025 USATF Champion

Photo credit: Mark Cullen

The excitement of a close competition took place behind her when 2023 World champion Brooke Andersen jumped from 4^th to second in the third round. At that point, the top four places were settled.

But not by much.

Rachel Richeson and Janee Kassanavoid were separated by only two centimeters after the first round in the battle for third, and try as she might, two-time World medalist Kassanavoid could not bridge the crucial gap.

Richeson, 4^th in last year’s Olympic Trials, recorded fair throws only twice, her first and last ones. She was in second place at 74.57(244-8) when Andersen’s 75.14(246-6) bumped her back into third.

But good enough, still, to qualify for her first major meet squad.

Said the twenty-five-year-old of her three-part, multi-year path to Worlds, “I didn’t start throwing hammer until college. My coach was the first one to see talent in me and develop me through my years at Notre Dame.”

The next step came when she graduated from Notre Dame and began working with coach AG Kruger.

“I’ve improved by 10 and a half meters in three seasons,” said Richeson. “It’s just a testament to how great a coach AG is.”

Her third component of success is “lots of people believing in me and seeing things maybe I didn’t see first.”

In spite of her silver medal performance today, Andersen said that she felt sluggish in the ring. “I was trying to throw outside of myself a little bit,” the 2022 World champion said.

She reminded herself to “trust the process, and doing so got me to 75.14 today, but hopefully I’ll get to the 70s, 80s in September.”

 “I feel like 80m was in the tank today,” said Price. Her next opportunity to reveal an 80m throw comes with a trip to Tokyo to take on Olympic champion  Camryn Rogers (Can) - as well as her talented teammates - for the World title in September.  

 We’ll leave the last words to Richeson.

 “Hammer,” she noted with insight and caution, “is a tricky thing to get ahold of and figure out.”

***                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

For the statistically minded among you – and if you’ve read this far, you are statistically minded! – here is Price’s series:

78.33 – 75.83 - 74.74 - 76.88 - 77.77 - 78.53