ATHLETICS: Kim Mickle of Western Australia has finished second in the women’s javelin at the opening meet of the prestigious IAAF Diamond League in Doha, Qatar overnight with a final round throw of 65.36m.  

Mickle produced the fifth-best performance of her career in Doha, with all five of her legal throws bettering the Commonwealth Games ‘A Standard’.  

The 29-year-old WAIS athlete opened the competition with a throw of 60.33m to be in second place behind the 64.78m effort of Martina Ratej of Slovenia at the end of Round One. The West Australian improved to 64.05m in the second round but still just trailed the Slovenia’s first up effort.  

Mickle fouled her third attempt but remained in second place and earned another herself three throws, while Ratej extended her lead with a hurl of 65.48m.  Mickle reached 62.20m in Round Four but dropped to third position in the competition after South African Sunette Viljoen threw 64.23m. 

The Australian remained in third place after the penultimate round, with her fifth attempt of 63.67m unable to make up ground. She then showed her penchant for pulling out big performances in the clutch, her final attempt of 65.36m moving her past Viljoen into second but falling just 12cm short of Ratej's 65.48m third round throw. By finishing second, Mickle has earned herself two valuable Diamond Points in The Diamond Race. 

The 29-year-old broke the Australian women’s javelin record at Melbourne’s Lakeside Stadium earlier this year with a heave of 66.83m. She has already been selected for the Australian team for the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow after her 64.28m throw at the Australian Athletics Championships in April secured her ninth national title.  

Fellow Australian Alana Boyd of Queensland was also competing in Doha in the women’s pole vault. 

Boyd cleared the opening height of 4.23m on her second attempt but was unable to successfully negotiate the next round at 4.43m and finished in seventh position overall in the nine-person field.  Her performance did however better the Commonwealth Games B Qualifying standard of 4.10m. The women’s pole vault in Doha was eventually won by Nikoleta Kyriakopoulou of Greece with a height of 4.63m. 

Boyd has already recorded five performances over the Commonwealth Games A-Qualifying standard of 4.50m this season and had won nine of her 11 competitions prior to Doha.   

The Doha meet was the first of 14 IAAF Diamond League events around the globe this season. You can view full results from the meet by clicking here. 

Round 2 of the IAAF Diamond League will be broadcast LIVE and EXCLUSIVE from Shanghai, China on EUROSPORT (Channel 511) from 10:00pm AEST on 18 May.

Athletics Australia