Having won her second successive European Athletics Championships silver medal at Roma 2024, javelin thrower Adrian Vilagos was crowned women’s Rising Star award at the Golden Tracks ceremony in Skopje, Republic of North Macedonia on 26 October.
Now, the Serbian athlete is targeting more glory next year including in the Bergen 2025 European Athletics U23 Championships in Norway.
“That is one of two big goals next year. I hope I will be able go there and have fun,” she says of Bergen 2025. “I like when it is an amazing atmosphere, so I am really looking forward to it.”
"Physically and mentally prepared"
Still only 20, Vilagos threw 65.64m in Zagreb last year placing her fifth in the world and firmly in the mix for future global honours.
With the Tokyo 2025 World Athletics Championships taking place in Japan, home country of the current Olympic and world champion Haruka Kitaguchi, it offers another exciting opportunity for Vilagos to compete in a competition that is sure to attract huge interest.
Having not progressed beyond qualifying at the Budapest 2023 World Athletics Championships and Paris 2024 Olympic Games, Vilagos is vowing to be “physically and mentally prepared” for Tokyo 2025.
And she draws inspiration from Kitaguchi. “I think now there are a lot of good women throwers. But I would say, Haruka, say she's the one. She's always performing good.”
Mother-daughter team
Vilagos’ route into javelin began at school with an encouraging PE teacher and her obvious throwing ability with a vortex - the small rocket-like beach toy. She won and it set her on the pathway towards javelin, all aided by mother Derdi, not only in her support and guidance, but her own throwing genetics, as a handball coach and player.
Since then, the mother-daughter team have developed their skills in tandem. It has led to successive gold medals at the World Athletics U20 Championships in Nairobi 2021 and Cali 2022 respectively and also gleaned gold at the Jerusalem 2023 European Athletics Championships and silver at the same event two years earlier in Tallinn, Estonia.
She also won a sensational silver at the Munich 2022 European Athletics Championships, aged 18 and repeated the feat this summer in Roma 2024 with her mother’s continued support with a superb 64.42m throw, just 20 centimetres adrift of gold medallist Victoria Hudson of Austria.
“We (were) learning it together and she really put a lot of time to learn and improve.” She says of her mother’s input. “And now she's my professional trainer. We have, a little group in our village, and there are other little girls who are, very passionate and successful also.”
So, not only is the sporting DNA being passed from mother to daughter, but a movement beyond two generations is being built for Serbian javelin throwing.
Chris Broadbent for European Athletics