Mackenzie Little goes from life saver to javelin bronze at world championships | World Athletics Championships

Mackenzie Little threw her way on to the podium in the javelin final at the world championships on Saturday, a week after helping save a man’s life at Royal North Shore hospital in Sydney on one of the many night shifts she juggles with athletics.

The 28-year-old doctor produced her longest throw first up, hurling the javelin 63.58m. It was only eclipsed twice in the final, by Ecuadorian gold medallist Juleisy Angulo whose effort of 65.12m was a national record, and by Anete Sietina on the Latvian’s final throw.

The Australian’s long early throw made for a nervous night. “I spent the whole competition visualising the fact that someone would overtake me,” she said, adding she was relieved when finally she knew it would be enough.

The bronze medal was something of a surprise as Little struggled to throw above 60m for much of this year. Yet it was also a missed opportunity, given the Australian’s single throw in qualification on Friday would have been enough to win gold. “Look, it would have been great to throw it today, but if you’d told me two days ago that I’d get a medal, I’d just be thrilled,” she said.

Mackenzie Little produced her longest throw first up, hurling the javelin 63.58m. Photograph: Aleksandra Szmigiel/Reuters

Little worked three night shifts in the emergency room last week before leaving for Tokyo, and continues to juggle her medical career and her athletics. Her approach has been tested this year, having been unable to recapture the form that saw her throw a personal best of 66m midway through 2024.

She said it has been challenging physically and emotionally. “Getting to training at the end of really long days, being exhausted and thinking about other athletes who might be sleeping in and training at 10am and having a nice big lunch before and after and then doing recovery in the afternoon and then getting eight hours sleep …” she said.

“Sometimes I think about that and feel that might be nice, rather than a 12-hour work day and then zooming to training and scoffing down dinner on my way home and then just trying to get to sleep as fast as I can. But it is my choice and I own it, because who am I to complain about it when it’s such a privilege and if I didn’t want to do it, I just wouldn’t have to.”

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Australia’s men’s 4x100m relay team, featuring Connor Bond, Josh Azzopardi, Calab Law and Rohan Browning, progressed to Sunday’s final as the seventh fastest team with a time of 38.21sec, having finished fourth in their heat behind Ghana.

Law said they can go faster. “We went 37.8 [37.87sec] in Sydney [in March when they set a national record],” he said. “The team’s just as good, a few changes but it doesn’t matter, we’re at the world championships and 38.2 is a good time, but that’s not what we’re capable of.”

There was heartbreak elsewhere in the relay program. The women’s 4x100m lasted just one leg after a failed first exchange from Ella Connolly to Bree Rizzo in which the baton never changed hands.

Australia’s Aidan Murphy races with the baton in the 4x400m, only to be disqualified for stepping outside the changeover box. Photograph: Eugene Hoshiko/AP

Rizzo said it all happened quickly. “I can’t see what’s behind me, Ella’s in the moment, so we need to go back and look at that footage and as a team review that and work on what went wrong,” she said. “But in saying that, maybe nothing went wrong.” Connolly said the team had worked hard all year and the outcome was “really disappointing”.

The men’s 4x400m featuring Cooper Sherman, Reece Holder, Aidan Murphy and Tom Reynolds rode an even steeper rollercoaster, after appearing to break the new national record – which has stood since the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984 – before they were disqualified. Murphy stepped outside the changeover box when receiving the baton at the start of the third leg.

Rose Davies ran a gutsy race in the 5,000m final, won by Ethiopian Beatrice Chebet over Faith Kipyegon. Davies stayed near the head of the pack until the final lap before dropping back, and crossed the line in 10th just ahead of her team-mate Linden Hall.

Earlier on Saturday, Matt Denny progressed into Sunday’s final of the discus after a single throw in qualification of 66.63m, good enough for fourth among all athletes.

The Australian team has won three bronze medals during the eight days of the championships, but have a good chance of finishing with more on the final day of competition. Nicola Olyslagers and Eleanor Patterson will compete in the high jump, and Jess Hull is chasing another medal in the 800m. Ky Robinson races in the 5,000m final and in the frenzy of the men’s 4x100m – which will be missing favourites Jamaica after a botched baton change – anything can happen.