Pictured is Vashti Williams competing at the Australian Athletics Championships in Perth.
Fourteen year old Vashti Williams from Trundle is a rising star in the sport of Javelin. Vashti has been throwing the javelin since before she could even walk through the school gates, spending her afternoons learning and training alongside her three older siblings.
Although athletics and sports has been a part of Vashti’s life from such a young age, it wasn’t until she was thirteen that she actually started to see herself as a good javelin thrower.
“At around thirteen, everything changed; those childhood goals suddenly shifted into reality. By the time I was at an age to compete in javelin, I already had over seven years of training, understanding rules and techniques of the sport.
“Parkes Little Athletics opened up totally new opportunities and competitions that I was able to compete at and work my way from the bottom of my age group when I began, to now being one of the top throwers in my age group at competitions,” said Vashti.
Vashti has recently competed at some major competitions, representing NSW on the national stage in April and then competing at the Oceania Athletics Championships in Darwin, representing Australia where she won a Bronze Medal in the Women’s U16 Javelin.
“I honestly never thought I would see myself throwing a javelin at places like Perth, Brisbane and definitely not Darwin! My debut on the National stage in Perth last year (2025) was the hardest experience out of the three. Being my first National competition, I didn’t know what to expect.”
After throwing over a 2m pb, Vashti was proud to come home with a bronze medal.
When competing at Nationals in Brisbane this year Vashti said, “I did what I could on that day and reflected on what I could have done to change my outcome and then put that into practice preparing for Darwin, where I received a bronze medal.”
“The Oceania Championships were by far my favourite competition to this day. Just the atmosphere and the encouragement from everyone around in all the events was such a great feeling,” said Vashti.
At every competition Vashti sets herself a standard that she tries to meet, it is never to beat someone else, it is only to better herself.
“My long-term goal will always be to represent Australia at the Olympics. My future goal for this year is to consistently be throwing over 40 metres and continue to better myself in all areas of my throwing technique and to keep positive.”
Most weeks Vashti trains after school on four days at a local oval and participates in weekend sports. Coming up in September Vashti hopes to compete in the CHS State competition, followed by All Schools at the end of September. Little Athletics will then begin and most weekends of November she will have an athletics carnival, which will prepare her for the Country Championships, Little Athletics Regionals/State and then shortly after the Nationals.
Vashti pictured at age 7 (throwing 15m) and at age 14 (throwing 38/39m) demonstrating a passion for athletics from an early age.
