Fully recovered from his injury, he began 2013 with a new best of 85.63 metres in February. He had his first top-three finish on the IAAF Diamond League circuit (third at the Shanghai Golden Grand Prix) and won the IAAF World Challenge Beijing meet. An improvement to 85.99 metres to win at the 2013 European Team Championships helped Russia to win the team title. He gained further Diamond League points with a third-place finish at the British Grand Prix in Birmingham and a runner-up finish at the Herculis meeting. He and his wife won the javelin gold medals at the Summer Universiade held in Kazan. The Russian championships was held at the Luzhniki Stadium as a test event for the 2013 World Championships in Athletics to be held there the month after. Tarabin responded to the occasion by winning his first national title with a throw of 88.84 m – the best throw by any athlete in the world in almost two years.