EUGENE, Ore. – Jorinde van Klinken battled more than her competitors Wednesday evening during the women’s discus final at the 2022 World Athletics Championships at Hayward Field.
The Dutch graduate student overcame an upset stomach, a quadriceps injury and 90-degree heat to finish fourth in the event. Van Klinken’s longest-throw came on her fifth attempt and measured 64.97 meters. Although van Klinken was limited physically and narrowly missed a podium finish, it’s safe to say a top-five performance brightened her grueling day.
“I’m very happy with it,” van Klinken said. “I think fourth place at Worlds is amazing.”
China’s Bin Feng (69.12 meters), Croatia’s Sandra Perković (68.45 meters) and the United States’ Valarie Allman (68.30 meters) all placed ahead of van Klinken to reach the podium.
Van Klinken, 22, has one indoor season of collegiate eligibility remaining and said she is leaving Arizona State and following throws coach Brian Blutreich to Tennessee. Volunteers head coach and director of track and field Duane Ross announced Blutreich’s hiring Wednesday. Blutreich spent the past six seasons at Arizona State, where he coached his athletes to 15 NCAA titles and 13 Pac-12 championships.
“I just think our personalities are a really good match,” van Klinken said about Blutreich. “We give it to each other straight and I just like that he’s so honest with me and kind of more leaning towards more negative, which I really like, because I really want to know everything that I’m doing wrong so that I can improve it and I don’t really like hearing, ‘Oh, good throw, good throw,’ when at the same time I feel like it was not a good throw.”
Van Klinken, who won 14 out of 14 discus competitions while wearing a Sun Devils uniform, is known for the high expectations she places on herself.
“It’s been a pretty frustrating season,” van Klinken said after Monday’s discus qualifying, despite throwing the second-best mark of the day at 65.66 meters. “I haven’t had one single good throw.”
This season alone, van Klinken won the Pac-12 shot put and discus outdoor championships and the NCAA discus outdoor championship. She finished runner-up in the shot put at the NCAA outdoor championships and was a semifinalist for The Bowerman – an award given to the most outstanding track and field male and female in the country. In March, she was named ASU’s Heather Farr Student-Athlete of the Year.
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“She’s a great person to have and again it’s somebody who understands the sport who’s (at) an even higher level than me and she can give me advice on what I have to change to reach my goals and get even higher, so it’s great having her around,” said Norway’s Beatrice Llano, who placed 28th in the women’s hammer throw and was van Klinken’s lone ASU teammate to compete at the 2022 World Athletics Championships.
The Dutch graduate student’s first attempt sailed left and was a foul. After the second round, she sat in seventh place with a 62.41-meter mark. Van Klinken threw 64 meters on her third attempt to move up to fifth, followed by 60.68 meters on her fourth attempt. After her fifth attempt, she was fourth and would stay put after her final throw was a foul. Van Klinken walked out of the cage and waved to the Hayward crowd. While she’s satisfied with finishing fourth, she was unsatisfied with her throwing form.
“I think I didn’t really have one throw with a good technique tonight, unfortunately,” van Klinken said. “I think the 65.66 (meters) from Monday was a little better, but I’m looking forward to (the European Athletics Championships) to hopefully execute all my cues a bit better and hopefully one throw that it’ll come together a little bit more.
Van Klinken said she was in great physical shape Wednesday which made her throw far; however, severe stomach pain and a lingering quadriceps injury bothered the Dutch-woman. After her fourth throw, van Klinken took a pill for her stomach and ate a banana to try and ease the pain.
“At some point it was kind of hard to concentrate still because my stomach was hurting so bad,” said van Klinken, who laid on her back after her fifth throw from excruciating pain. “I was just trying to relax and make my stomach calm down a little bit. …I can turn the pain off pretty good so it didn’t bother me that much.”
Van Klinken now turns her attention to the European Athletics Championships that begin August 15 in Germany before she trades orange uniforms from the Netherlands to the Volunteers.
“My goal is to win a medal in both (the discus and shot put),” Van Klinken said.