From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank

Curtis Thompson, a five-time U.S. javelin champion and two-time Olympian, is doing something very few Americans have ever done.

Thompson popped a 277-11 throw in the qualifying round at the World Track Championships in Tokyo. It’s his 2^ndtime in the finals at Worlds. He placed 11^th in 2023.

Thompson is only the third Americans to reach more than one World Championship javelin final. Tom Petranoff placed 2^nd in Helsinki in 1983 and 4^th in Rome in 1987, and Breaux Greer was 4^th in Edmonton in 2001 and 3^rd in Osaka in 2007.

The only other U.S. javelin throwers to reach the World Championship finals since the meet’s inception in 1983 are Duncan Atwood [12^th in 1987], Tom Pukstys [9^th in 1993] and Sean Furey [12^th in 2009].

Only one American has thrown farther at World Championships than Thompson did Wednesday in qualifying. That’s Breaux Greer, who placed 4^th in the 2001 meet in Edmonton with a 285-5, then threw 282-10 in qualifying in 2007 in Osaka, then 284-8 for 3^rd place in the final.

The final is scheduled for 6:23 a.m. Thursday at Japan National Stadium in downtown Tokyo. Thompson ranks 3^rd in U.S. history with his lifetime-best 287-11 in Austin in March