Cal Grad Anna Purchase Wins Hammer Throw at UK Olympic Trials

Fellow Cal alum Georgia Bell locks up her Olympic bid by winning the women's 1,500 meters at the UK meet

Anna Purchase celebrates her victory at the UK Olympic trials / Twitter

Anna Purchase, who spent her Cal track and field career largely in the shadow of hammer throw star Camryn Rogers, could join her former teammate at the Paris Olympics.

Purchase, 24, won the event this weekend at the UK Championships, which also serve as Britain’s Olympic trials.

She threw 225 feet, 8 inches (68.79 meters) to beat defending national champ Charlotte Payne, whose best effort was 222-10 (67.33).

Rogers, the former three-time NCAA champion, already has clinched a bid to represent Canada in her second Olympics. She is the reigning world champion after placing fifth at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.

Meanwhile, Cal alum Georgia Bell clinched her spot on the UK Olympic roster Sunday by outracing Laura Muir in the final of the women’s 1,500 meters.

Bell, 30, who was out of the sport for four years after her time at Cal, ran 4:10.69 in a tactical race to capture the British national championship. Muir, whose best of 3:56.35 ranks eighth on the 2024 world list, crossed in 4:11.59 on Sunday.

Bell already has the Olympic standard, having run 4:00.41 at the Prefontaine Classic in May, so she is set to run at Paris.

Purchase, in spite of winning the trials at Manchester, England, has not absolutely clinched an Olympic berth because she has not attained the Olympic standard of 242-9 (74.0 meters).

But Purchase, whose lifetime best 239-7 (73.02), remains well-positioned to earn an invite to Paris based on her No. 16 world rankings quota. 

Only 12 women have achieved the Olympic standard and the field of 32 entries, so as many as 20 athletes without the standard could be invited, based on the rankings.

The women’s hammer throw competition at the Paris Games gets started with qualifying on Aug. 4 and the final on Aug. 6.