Mickle Third at London Diamond League

Western Australian Institute of Sport javelin thrower Kim Mickle will head into the World Championships in good form, having won a bronze medal at the London Diamond League in her final hit-out before next month’s titles.

Mickle produced a third round effort of 63.39m that was good enough for third place in the London Olympic Stadium, in her final meet before returning to Perth to finalise her preparations for the IAAF Athletics World Championships in Beijing.

Mickle first rose to international prominence at the 2013 World Championships in Moscow, when she threw a then personal best of 66.60m to win silver.

Mickle has since gone on to break the Australian national record and win gold at the 2014 Commonwealth Games and now stands as one of Australian athletics’ brightest and most consistent performers, with a run of form that has seen the dual WAIS Athlete of the Year podium at each event she has contested since last year’s Continental Cup in Marrakech.

The London Diamond League meet represented a virtual World Championship field, with Olympic Champion Barbora Spotakova and current 2015 world lead Sunette Viljoen both in action as well as a stable of the world’s top ten competitors.

Mickle made a slow start, measuring 60.73m in the opening round but improved that mark to 62.41m with her second throw before cementing her bronze medal in the third round with her best effort of the competition. Mickle was unable to record a distance with her closing three throws, but completes a successful tour that also saw a podium finish at the Paris Diamond League event.

Victory in London, went to Latvian Madara Palameika (65.01m) – who edged Spotakova (65.00m) of the Czech Republic by a mere centimetre. South Africa’s Viljoen was fourth, with a best throw of 63.14m.

The 2015 IAAF World Championships commence on August 22, running through to August 30.