EUGENE, Ore. — Hayward Field didn’t have any magic left for Kara Winger.
The Skyview High School alum won’t be going to the Olympics in Paris despite finishing second at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field trials on Sunday.
Winger, who came out of retirement to compete, threw 62.94 meters (206 feet, 6 inches) on her final throw, but it was short of the Olympic standard of 64 meters (209-11). She needed throw 64 to go to the Games because she has lost her world ranking.
“I wanted to prove to myself that I could compete the way I would want to if I went to Paris. I did not do that today. So I’m all good. All good,” Winger told OregonLive.com.
Maggie Malone Hardin won the event by breaking her own meet-record with a throw of 64.58 (211-10) and will head to the Olympics. She was the only competitor in the field coming in with the Olympic standard.
Malone Hardin said she couldn’t have thrown 64 meters without Winger at the meet.
“She elevates the sport,” Malone Hardin told the Eugene Register-Guard. “She is the goat. I told her when I was giving her a hug, I was like, ‘You are my idol. You were the first javelin video I’ve ever watched.’
“I have tried so hard to be like her. She’s paved a road and she’s such an inspiration. To see her get a world medal inspires me to do more too.”
Winger was attempting to qualify for a fifth Olympic Games. She competed in Beijing (2008), London (2012), Rio (2016), and Tokyo (2021).
“I’m OK to finally actually be retired and riding off into the sunset,” she told OregonLive.com “It feels different this time, because I satisfied my curiosity. I needed to figure out could I do this one more time, or can’t I? I know that I could have, but I didn’t. So I’m all set.”
Another local athlete was in action Sunday as Ridgefield High grad Trey Knight made the men’s hammer final day.
At 22, Knight, who competes at Cal State Northridge, was the youngest athlete in the 12-man final.
He missed the top eight final round by three inches. His best throw was 241-4, coming on this third attempt and placed ninth.
Knight’s personal best throw of 252 feet came this year at the Mt. SAC Relays on April 20.
