Two-time Olympian DeAnna Price took eighth in the women’s hammer throw competition Tuesday morning at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, while fellow two-time Olympian and Saluki alum Gwen Berry placed 11th.
DeAnna Price threw 73.09m (239′-9″) on her final attempt to finish eighth. Price, who was fighting through a fractured foot, fouled on her first attempt but threw 239′-1″ (72.87m) on her second throw to earn three more throws. The Moscow Mills, Mo. native improved to 239′-9″ (73.09m) on her final attempt to finish eighth for the second-straight Olympics. Gwen Berry, who advanced to the Olympic finals for the first time in her career, threw 234′-1″ (71.35m) on her third toss to finish 11th.
Poland’s Anita Wlodarczyk became the first female athlete in history to win successive Olympic titles in an individual event after she threw 78.48m on her fourth attempt to seal her third-straight gold medal. China’s Zheng Wang finished second after she finished 12th in the event in 2016, while Poland’s Malwina Kopron took bronze with a toss of 75.49m.
It marks the eighth time in SIU track and field history that a Saluki has finished top-8 at the Olympics, and Price is the first to do so at back-to-back Olympics since George Woods in 1972 and 1976.
