Live: Little goes big to soar into javelin final at the first attempt

When you line up for your parkrun tomorrow morning, have the time that these men run their 5k in mind.

It will probably blow it, to be honest.

Two Aussies in this one, Seth O’Donnell and Ky Robinson.

Cole Hocker, the Olympic 1,500m champion is in this, so is Kuma Girma and Hagos Gebrhiwet, the fourth-fastest of all time. A strong field.

Top eight qualify automatically.

Record breakers Rose Davies and Linden Hall ensured that Australia had two athletes reach the final of the 5,000m for the first time ever at a world championships last night.

What can the men do in response?

There are three Aussies competing across the two heats, Seth O’Connell and Ky Robinson in heat one, with Jack Rayner going in heat two.

Top eight from each heat qualify for the final, so there’s not much room for error.

Hi Hetty, great question.

In short, if more than 12 people throw the distance required for automatic qualification, then all of them will make the final.

That’s why calculating it is just a fine art.

It has to be short enough to be a carrot for the big guns to target for a shorter qualification campaign, but long enough so that there remains a degree of exclusivity.

Has to be said, there’s not much danger of more than 12 throwers making the distance so far – only Mackenzie Little and Ecuador’s Juleisy Angulo have managed it in this first group through two rounds.

Let’s have a quick check in with the heptathlon.

The Aussies have fallen a little further behind the leaders after the opening two rounds.

Tori West is sitting in 20th spot with 1,872 points, while Camryn Newton-Smith is on 1,946 and sits in 15th.

Up at the top of the ladder, American star Anna Hall leads the way with 2,210 points.

The favourite from Belgium, Nafi Thiam, is nextwith 2,127 and British former champ Katarina Johnson-Thompson and Ireland’s Kate O’Connor both have 2,113 in third.

WOW WHAT A THROW!

Mackenzie Little has thrown a massive season’s best of 65.54, automatically qualifying for the final with her first throw!

Time to go and have a rest ahead of tomorrow’s final!

What a brilliant start for Dr Little.

Time for the main program of the night to get underway in the field, with the women’s javelin qualifiers.

The field has been split in two halves, with an Aussie in each.

First up, we’ll have Mackenzie Little throwing for a spot in the final.

The automatic qualifying mark is 62.50, which is well under Little’s personal best of 66.27, but is further than she’s managed this year (61.96).

If not enough women throw over 62.50, it will be the 12 best qualifiers who get through.

Just a quick update from the organisers of the competition.

Rain is expected tomorrow, with fans told to bring jackets.

What does that mean?

A slippery baton for the 4x400m and 4x100m relay heats for one.

Cooler conditions for the two Aussies in the 5,000m final for another.

It’s three X’s for Tori West at 1.74 and she will be a tad disappointed with that.

She ends the high jump phase of the competition with a height of 1.71, which is 867 points.

Once the whole field has jumped, we’ll update you in where the Aussies stand.

But in the high jump competition finishes in 19th, with Newton-Smith in 16th.

Tori West has had to dig deep to get herself up over 1.71 at the second attempt.

That was her first failure at any height so far but she’ll be wanting to edge up a bit closer to her season’s best of 1.76 at least.

Disappointing for the Aussie.

Camryn Newton-Smith has knocked over the bat three times at 1.77, which means she will take no further part in the high jump competition.

She will be credited as 1.74 as her last successful clearance, which I think, if my calculations are correct, is worth 903 points.

Sally Pearson has been telling SBS Sport that Jess Hull knows what it takes to perform at the very top of the pile in middle distance running, and backs her to reach the final later on.

Those semifinals, also featuring Abbey Caldwell and Claudia Hollingsworth will get underway at 9:45pm AEST.

More good resilience from Camryn Newton-Smith.

She failed at her first attempt at 1.74 as well, but managed to clear it at the second attempt and will move up to 1.77.

Meanwhile, in Group B, Tori West is clear first time at 1.68.

Camryn Newton-Smith has survived a scare at her third height of 1.71.

She knocked the bar over on her first attempt, but got over safely at the second attempt.

Remember, she has a season’s best of 1.80, and a personal best of 1.84. She’ll be wanting to get a lot closer to that if she can.

Good stuff from the Aussies.

Tori West has got over at a safe opening height of 1.62.

While Camryn Newton-Smith has got over her opening two heights safely, 1.65 and 1.68.

These high jump events at the heptathlon are normally all over the place because the different heights people come in on, so we’ll do our best to let you know how the Aussies are doing.

It’s been a disaster for Pippi Lotta Enok of Estonia though, she failed to clear 1.65 in her three attempts and will score 0 points.

While we’re talking about falling, we could have had a disastrous situation for Australian hope Jess Hull in the 800m heats.

Hull was spiked and tripped just 200m into the race – a racing incident that nobody could have done anything about.

She finished last in her heat, save for the runner who didn’t finish.

However, Australian Athletics appealed and Hull was granted entry into the semifinal regardless.

She wasn’t the only one instated to the semis following a fall, Sarah Moraa, cousin of former champ Mary Moraa, was also promoted.

Here’s the full story.

Torrie West is in Group B and has got close to her personal best of 1.78 this season, jumping just 2cm lower.

There is such a wide range of abilities in the high jump in this heptathlon field.

Nafissatou Thiam has the capability of leaping over 2 metres, while Lithuania’s Beatričė Juškevičiūtė has a personal best of just 1.71.

This Group B is seeded slightly lower than Group A, just to keep things moving a bit faster.

Camryn Newton-Smith has a personal best of 1.84 but has only jumped 1.80 so far this season.

The high jump is one of the most difficult and precarious events in the entire competition.

Three failures at the opening height means 0 points, meaning there’s no way you can get a medal.

A short break now for 10 or so more minutes while the heptathletes move over to the high jump mat, so time for some trivia!

Camryn Newton-Smith is the reigning Oceania heptathlon champion, winning her title in Suva in 2024. Tori West was second.

Australia’s Taneille Crase finished first in 2022, but in 2019 another Australian, Kiara Reddingius, won.

That’s probably not such a huge surprise, but Reddingius has gone on to excel in a completely different sport after her regional triumph.

You’re now more likely to see her at the back of a bobsled piloted by Bree Walker, with whom she competed at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics and may do so again in Milano-Cortina next year.

Why thanks for asking, Clifford.

You can read all about it right here…

Nicola Olyslagers and Eleanor Patterson both got safely through their qualifiers without really breaking a sweat.

Both women cleared 1.92 without a failure, joining the 11 others who made it over that height.

Here’s what Olyslagers told World Athletics after her competition.

“I am just trying to enjoy it because I know being in a good shape for a world championships is very rare,” she said.

“At times I pushed to hard and something broke, so I hope my body and mind are great for the final.

“For the two jumps today I felt good.

“I’m hungry for more on Sunday.”

In total, 16 women got through to the final.

However, the third Aussie Emily Whelan was unable to join them after failing at 1.92 and having two failures at each of her previous two heights to miss out on countback.