16CM GAME OF THROWS
SHE knows it, her opponents know it and Australia is growing to love it.
Call it having ice in her veins, being the clutch queen or eating pressure for breakfast, Kelsey-Lee Barber simply knows how to win at the last second.
She was at it again in Birmingham, waiting until her final throw in the javelin final to launch the winner and snatch the gold medal off her Australian teammate Mackenzie Little.
This is a scenario that is getting wonderfully familiar.
At the 2019 world championships in Doha she went from fourth to first with her last heave to claim gold and then at last year’s Tokyo Olympics she looked gone for all money until a miracle last throw won her a bronze medal.
Doing it once can be put down to a freak result, twice and it’s a sign of something special. Three times and you’re a deadset legend and one of the great pressure performers across the whole Australian sporting landscape.
Throw in the fact Barber also soaked up the pressure of defending her world title two weeks ago in Eugene, Oregon, making history as the only female javelin thrower to win back-to-back gold medals.
But wait, there’s more. She also happened to have Covid last week.
“I didn’t think about the fact I have done it before but more about the fact it is one more opportunity,” Barber said. “The comp is not over until I have had this throw and I find that really settling.
“I am not going to lie, it is really nice to know I have the confidence that I can keep lifting through a competition and I can find something in that last round.
“It’s a nice card to have going into competitions; it keeps the competition alive. There is no rest in any of the rounds.”
Little looked destined for gold after opening the competition with a personal best 64.03sec and then extended her lead with another career best of 64.27m on her secondlast throw. Barber, 29, hadn’t been able to improve on her opening throw of 63.52m until the competition reached money time and the pressure was at its greatest, then she calmly sent the javelin 64.43m.
The Commonwealth gold has been a missing piece of her CV given she won bronze in Glasgow in 2014 and silver four years later on the Gold Coast, beaten by her Australian teammate Kathryn Mitchell.
“This is a really lovely story,” Barber said. “I had the bronze, I had the silver and the gold was always the goal but to come away and achieve it today I am really pleased for the journey the Commonwealth Games has taken me on.”
Afterwards she admitted to feeling more fatigued than normal with the Covid situation becoming more of a mind game than physical issue.
“That just threw a bit of a spanner in the preparations and we already didn’t know how that was going to look backing up (from worlds),” Barber said. “But I think there were a few days where I did start feeling nervous and I was unsure how it was going to play out.
‘’I then thought, don’t worry about the few days of training I may have missed this week because the body is still good, the feel is still good and the confidence is there.
“I do feel a little more fatigued than I normally would after six rounds of throws but symptom wise, I am feeling really good. I just willed a little bit of health into my body and said, ‘I will be fine, I’ll be good, I’ll get this done, I’ll find a way’.”
And she did, in trademark dramatic Barber fashion.