COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Kimberly Beard is once again a national champion.
The Mukilteo resident and rising junior at King’s High School claimed her third straight Junior Olympic national championship in the hammer throw, winning the women’s age 17-18 title at the USA Track and Field National Junior Olympic Championships last week.
Beard blew the rest of the field away with a winning throw of 180 feet, 5 inches, which she achieved on the last of her six attempts. The mark was 14 feet further than her nearest competitor. All four of Beard’s legal throws would have won the event by at least eight feet.
The Junior Olympic national title joins the ones she won the previous two summers competing in the girls 15-16 age group.
Earlier this summer Beard set the age 17-18 national record when she recorded a mark of 186-4 in finishing second at the USATF U20 Championships. She also won the under-18 competition at the BC Athletics/Royal Legion Provincial Championship in Nanaimo, B.C., with a mark of 200-6 using the lighter hammer.
Beard, who is currently ranked 12th in the world among women’s under-18 competitors, has completed her outdoor season.
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