Wesche earns world athletics bronze
- Dave Worsley
- Sep 21
- 2 min read
Updated: Sep 22
New Zealand shot putter Maddi Wesche, has seen gold snatch away from her grasp to finish with bronze at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo.
An Olympic silver medallist Wesche led the competition through the first five rounds after opening her series with an equal personal best distance of 20.06m.
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Wesche looked on track to take a third gold for New Zealand at the championships before being surpassed by two competitors.
Dutch star Jessica Schilder, who was fifth threw 20.29m to claim gold while American Chase Jackson reached 20.21m to take silver and Wesche was pushed back to third.
Twenty-six-year-old Wesche produced a big throw in her final attempt which looked like it could reclaim top spot but it was ruled a foul.
Despite the result, the always animated Weshe was positive.
"I'm still a little bit speechless, sitting in first place for most of the competition was a little bit foreign to me," she said.
"To throw 20 metres on my first throw and then over 22 metres on my last (a foul) shows that all the training my coach, my team and I have been doing is paying off.
"I've got bigger goals and bigger distances to come, those are my aspirations in this sport.
"This was the craziest competition I've ever been part of and those are the moments you live for as an athlete."
By claiming a third medal it becomes the most successful world championships campaign.
Earlier in the meetinh Georgie Beamish won gold in the 3000m steeplechase, followed by a podium-topping performance from Olympic champion high jumper Hamish Kerr.
Tori Moorby finished an impressive seventh in the women's javelin final, after qualifying sixth.
She had a best throw of 61.53m left Moorby while Connor Bell qualified 11th for tonight's men's discus final.
