It only takes one bolt of lightning to win a javelin world title, and it was Juleisy Angulo who found that burst of energy in Tokyo, becoming Ecuador’s first ever female world gold medallist at the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 25.

Angulo, 24, came to Tokyo as the 14th seed, but leaves as her country’s first field event world champion and a national hero. Ecuador had never even won a medal in a field event and Angulo is the first from her country to qualify for a final in the field.

All of Ecuador’s past glory has come from the great race walker Jefferson Perez, a triple world champion.

But the women’s javelin has been somewhat subdued this year, with a mass of potential medal contenders. The world title was there for the taking and it was the Ecuadoran who seized the moment, producing the best throw of her life in the second round, 65.12m, which defied all challenge over the last four rounds.

“My goal here was to reach the final so I am very emotional, in shock. I still can’t believe it,” she said.

“My training partner Flor Denis (Ruiz Hurtado, of Colombia, who finished sixth) won silver two years ago and I thought I could be at that level one day. I dreamed of a world medal since I started athletics. I have faced some adversities, such as two surgeries in my left knee. But I persevered. I never gave up.”

Australia’s Budapest world bronze medallist Mackenzie Little set the early standard with a first round throw of 63.58m, which held until late in the second round when Angulo stunned the usual contenders, summoning an almost two-metre personal best to take the lead.

Latvia’s Anete Sietina was the only one able to respond. Fourth in Budapest, she was determined to be on the podium this time. Her fifth-round throw of 63.35m accomplished that mission, and with at least bronze sewn up she unleashed the biggest throw of her life in the final round, 64.64m, to clinch the silver medal. Little held on to the bronze.

This has not been a vintage year for the event – this is the smallest distance ever to win the title, but that won’t matter a jot in Ecuador. Nor does it to any of the medallists.

“It’s like a dream, but I deserve it,” Sietina said. “All the work I put in, it’s so much and it’s hard, so it means everything. Throwing 64.64m is the magic number and my PB. My last one was in 2017, such a long time it feels like the Titanic: ‘It’s been 84 years.’ I’ve been waiting that long. Since my fourth place in Budapest, I just worked smarter, not harder and I think fourth was a big motivation for this moment. I knew that I was capable of throwing far. It’s a magic day in Tokyo.”

The second biggest shock of the competition came in the qualification round when Japan’s Olympic champion Haruka Kitaguchi failed to qualify for the final – much to the dismay of her home crowd.

Kitaguchi, who had thrown 64.63m earlier in the season, could muster only 60.38m with her three qualifying throws which left her 14th in the order and out of the 12-woman final.

Serbia’s world U20 champion Adriana Vilagos had no such issue, qualifying first with 66.06m, ahead of Little, who found her form in a rush, hitting a season’s best of 65.54m.

Either throw would have been good enough to secure the gold in the final, but timing is everything and it was Angulo who found the magic when it counted.

Little, 28, was philosophical about the outcome, particularly after the Paris Olympics where she entered as a medal contender but flopped in the final. She said she had done a huge amount of work to rebuild her self-belief since then, and saw this medal as “a bit of redemption from the Olympics and it’s more reflective of what I can do”.

A medical doctor, who combines full-time work in Sydney with the demands of her elite training schedule, Little does her best to balance both commitments, but admits it compromises her training at times.

She said she did not expect her first throw to hold up for a medal but was “thrilled” it had.

“This is just such a reward for myself for some really hard work, some really lonely work,” she said.

An Australian has now won a medal in this event at the past four World Championships – Little’s two bronzes following Kelsey-Lee Barber’s gold medals in 2019 and 2022.

Nicole Jeffery for World Athletics