Among all the athletes smiling at the Ultimate Champ in Budapest, the grin on the face of Japan’s women’s javelin winner Haruka Kitaguchi was one of the broadest.
The $150,000 payday obviously helped but victory with a 226-1 (68.92) NR was also partial redemption for the bitter disappointment she faced at her home World Champs almost 12 months ago to the day.
Turn the clock back to the ’25 WC women’s JT qualifying round and, by comparison, the universally popular Kitaguchi cut a miserable figure.
The ’23 Worlds gold medalist and ’24 Olympic champ — which helped earn her the No. 1 T&FN javelin Ranking for those two years — had failed to progress in front of expectant home fans in Tokyo. Kitaguchi had a best throw of only 198-1 (60.38), 2 places and 2 feet (60cm) away from making the final.
Having been the home nation’s best bet for gold at the start of ’25 and the poster girl of the championships, it was a crushing blow despite the reality of having battled tendon issues, and the consequent pain in the elbow of her right throwing arm for the previous 3 months.
Later in ’25 reports surfaced in the Japanese media that Kitaguchi had parted ways with her coach David Sekerak; the reports were subsequently confirmed in January this year.
It also soon became apparent that Kitaguchi had linked up with someone she knew well having been based in Czechia since 2019, the year which saw her first NR, none other than javelin legend Jan Železný.
The 3-time gold medalist at both the Olympics and World Championships still holds the men’s WR after 30 years with his 1996 mark of 323-1 (98.48).
The pair worked together at Železný’s usual winter retreat in Potchefstroom, South Africa, in February — which has been his out-of-season destination since the ’90s. In May they officially went public about their collaboration.
Kitaguchi wrote on social media at the time, “After our training camp in South Africa, I’m excited to announce that I have officially started working with true legend Jan Železný. I am incredibly honored to begin this new chapter with him.”
She added, “I am looking forward to absorbing everything I can, not just about technique, but also the elite mentality it takes to succeed.”
Initial results were spotty. Kitaguchi placed 7th and 9th at the Xiamen and Monaco DLs earlier in the summer, but 2nd at the Brussels DL Final with 214-8 (65.44) showed that things were going in the right direction, albeit with a distance almost 6 feet adrift of the Chinese teenage throwing prodigy Ziyi Yan.
The Brussels result was promising enough for Kitaguchi to comment to the Japanese media in the days ahead of the Ultimate Champ, “I think an upset might be on the cards, In the first half of the season she [Yan] was overwhelmingly stronger and it wasn’t really a contest, But I think I have a chance to beat her.”
“[in Brussels] I was able to go into a competition with confidence for the first time in a while, and I’m glad that confidence was justified.”
Asked what Železný had done to change things for the better, Kitaguchi said, “He’s identified nearly 20 areas for improvement, especially with my grip and foot placement from when we first began working together this season, it has overwhelmed me at times, but ultimately I feel positive about the potential for progress.”
Progress that was evident in Budapest.
On Sunday, September 27, on home territory in Nagoya — just after this feature was first published — Kitaguchi got a rematch with ’26 world leader Yan at the Asian Games. The Chinese prodigy had thrown 222-3 (68.05) with her Budapest opener only to later retire with a foot injury. The result was Yan’s only defeat of the year through September.
The pendulum swung back in Nagoya. Yan launched a mighty blast out to 231-2 (70.46) on her opener, the No. 10 all-time performance, and passed the rest of her throws. Kitaguchi got her longest of the comp in round 6, frequently her MO, but it was not nearly enough that day, 205-8 (62.70).
With national pride at stake, duels between the pair will also surely be hyped up ahead of the ’27 World Champs in Beijing.
