Report17 Aug 2016


Report: men's javelin qualifying – Rio 2016 Olympic Games

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Keshorn Walcott at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games (© Getty Images / AFP)

Keshorn Walcott is ready to put up a determined defence of his Olympic title in Saturday’s final judging from the 88.68m he threw to lead the qualifying competition.

In 2012, the Trinidad and Tobago thrower produced one of the surprises of the Games when he took the gold medal while still an U20 athlete, albeit a very talented one having won the world U20 title just a few weeks before and becoming the youngest ever men’s javelin medallist in the history of the Olympics.

Since then, he has become an experienced international and won the Pan American title last year as well as throwing an area record of 90.16m at the IAAF Diamond League meeting in Lausanne just over 12 months ago.

Nevertheless, his first-round throw on Wednesday night, in hot and still conditions which actually gave little help to the throwers and with temperatures hovering at about 30C, was the second best of his short career and the second best distance in an Olympic qualifying event.

Johannes Vetter, making it three Germans in the final on Saturday night after two of his compatriots qualified in the earlier pool, also came out with all guns blazing and threw 85.96m in the first round while Japan’s Ryohei Arai, opening the throwing in the second pool, reached 84.16m.

With their third throws, Czech Republic’s Petr Frydrych and Kenya’s world champion Julius Yego also qualified, the latter slightly flirting with disaster after a modest first-round throw of just over 78 metres and then a foul.

Anxious times for Ruuskanen and Vesely

From this group, Yego’s predecessor and 2013 world champion Vitezslav Vesely went through as a non-automatic qualifier after reaching 82.85m with his final throw to make it a full complement of Czech throwers in the final. It prompted wry grins and some relieved smiles from the thrower and his coach, javelin legend Jan Zelezny, who was sitting in the stands close by the competition, after the group was concluded.

Finland’s 2014 European champion Antti Ruuskanen also made it through the back door as a non-automatic qualifier with 82.20m but there was no place in the final for Latvia’s newly-minted European champion Zigismunds Sirmais, who could only reach 80.65m  

Julian Weber made it a short evening’s work when he sent his implement out to 84.46m, well over the automatic qualifying mark of 83.00m and that distance stood up as the best in the earlier group A.

Behind the German, another three men eventually exceeded 83 metres but all took three attempts to do it.

Czech Republic’s Jakub Vadlejch threw 83.27m, Ukraine’s Dymtro Kosynskyy surprised when he reached a season’s best of reached 83.23m while world leader Thomas Rohler, the only man over 90 metres this year, showed some signs of discomfort after his recent back problems which reduced him to fifth at the European Championships last month but still threw 83.10m.

Finland’s 2007 world champion Tero Pitkamaki, who was also a bronze medallist at the IAAF World Championships Beijing 2015, could do no better than 79.56m with his three throws in group A and after finishing 10th in this pool he was quickly eliminated after a few throws in group B.

However, his result was not a complete surprise as he picked up a groin injury in March, was operated on in May and had to delay his start to season until mid-June

Phil Minshull for the IAAF

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