Mackenzie Little Wins Javelin Bronze At World Athletics Championships
Mackenzie Little won a medal in the last throw of the international athletics championships, but she will be late to her day job in Australia.
She is the world's third-best javelin thrower and a fly-in, fly-out medical student.
With her final throw, Mackenzie Little moved up from fifth to second and into second place, earning Australia its third medal of the world championships.
Little, a fourth-year postgraduate medical student at Sydney University, has flown out on hit-run missions throughout the European season, arriving the day before tournaments and leaving the day after to guarantee she is back at work on Monday.
Her original plans were to leave Budapest on an early Saturday flight, but she must now stay to attend a medal celebration.
"My flight leaves tomorrow morning, and I'm at the hospital (Royal North Shore) on Monday morning, but I hear there's a medal ceremony, so we're going to talk about that later," Little said.
While Kelsey-Lee Barber's recent successes have made it sound like Australians routinely drop bombs with their final throws at major championships, her youthful teammate stole the show this time.
When it counted, Little delivered, throwing 63.38 meters to move up from fifth to second place. This was an improvement of over two meters over her previous throws.
Her hold on silver was brief, as fourth-placed Haruka Kitaguchi of Japan produced a remarkable 66.73m throw on her final try to move up to first place and win the gold medal.
After leading after her first round throw of 65.47m, Flor Denis Ruiz Hurtado of Colombia had to settle for second place.
Barber's best throw of 61.19m came on her fifth attempt, putting her in seventh place. This was a far cry from the late surges that had won her the previous two world titles.
Little, who graduated from Stanford and won an NCAA title, plans to stick to her unconventional training regimen in the year leading up to the 2016 Olympic Games in Paris.
It's in December, so I'll be Dr. Little at the Olympics when I graduate," she joked.
The strategy will be the same in 2019, but I want to earn more medals.
Now I really believe in myself. Working full-time will be incredibly stressful and emotionally draining, but I know I can find the balance, and I'm looking forward to next year's challenges.
"I feel like I spent this year trying to show myself, that the way I compete and the way I live my life as an athlete are the greatest ways to compete. Just keep doing what you're doing next year, and I guarantee you'll see results.
The 26-year-old has taken three quick trips to Europe, two to the United States, and one to Japan over the past four months.
She won her maiden Diamond League victory in Lausanne in late June with a personal best throw of 65.70m, and she entered Budapest ranked No. 3 in the globe, so clearly the unconventional but efficient practice is working.
All throughout the season, I've been steadily improving. Little boasted, "I've learned to travel well, compete, and nail that technical stuff. I feel like I've advanced to the next level of throwers and am prepared to compete at the international championships.
It's thrilling just to be there, with hopes and anticipations. This is the pinnacle of my professional life and a dream come true.
Barber admitted that her lackluster performance in the final was reflective of her inconsistent season.
Unfortunately, it wasn't like the amazing throws I can describe tonight, as Barber put it. It's all about timing and elegance and tunneling that energy through so beautifully, and I just missed all six of them for slightly different reasons.
"Unfortunately, I couldn't pull that off tonight."
Earlier in the day, Australian Kathryn Mitchell caused a stir when she was introduced to the crowd, where she waved and smiled before being hauled out of the stadium.
Mitchell, who slammed her water bottle onto the track as she departed in tears, had strained her abductor during her final run through, just before her first throw was planned.