Columbia News

Valentina Barrios, a senior at the University of Missouri and the 2025 NCAA Champion in women’s javelin, secured first place in the women’s javelin event at the U23 Pan American Games held at Estadio de Atletismo in Luque, Paraguay. Barrios achieved a throw of 60.16 meters (197-4), marking her second-best performance to date.

She finished ahead of Manuela Rotundo from Georgia, who is the 2025 Southeastern Conference Champion in the same event. With this result, Barrios continues a strong season following her national championship win with a career-best throw of 62.00 meters (203-5) during the NCAA outdoor track and field season.

Barrios is now waiting to see if she will represent Colombia and Missouri at the upcoming 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, Japan. Her participation depends on maintaining a position within the top 36 world rankings for women’s javelin; she currently stands at 34th prior to factoring in her latest result. Each country can send up to three athletes per event if they meet qualification standards or have high enough world rankings.

The World Athletics Championships are considered one of the most important events in track and field outside of the Olympic Games and will be held September 13-21, 2025, in Tokyo before moving to Beijing for the next edition.

In addition to Barrios’ achievements, former Missouri athlete Gabi Jacobs earned third place in women’s discus at the USA Track and Field Outdoor Championship with a throw of 63.33 meters (207-9), securing her spot on Team USA for Tokyo. Jacobs also finished second at the North American, Central America and Caribbean Championship with a mark of 57.07 meters (187-0). Senior Euphenie Andre took second place in women’s triple jump with a distance of 13.26 meters (43-5) at that same competition.

Jillian Weir, daughter of Missouri assistant coach Robert Weir, placed third in women’s hammer throw with a mark of 69.08 meters (226-6).

For further updates on Missouri Tigers Cross Country and Track & Field teams, information is available on MUTigers.com as well as their social media channels.