Jan Hoffman of RSA in action in the Boys' Shot Put qualification at the World Youth Championships (© Getty Images)
MarrakechJan Hoffman and Noel Meyer after winning gold medals for South Africa on the opening day of the IAAF/Maroc Telecom World Youth Championships, revealed mixed reactions to their successes.
"My target now is to break the youth world record," said Meyer, whose winning final round throw of 80.52 metres, exceeded his pre-Marrakech best-ever effort by a huge amount.
Meyer who had already landed a personal best second round throw of 78.01m, didn't panic when Roman Avramenko with his very last attempt, sensationally took the lead.
"I just tried to relax when the Ukrainian threw 79m," said Meyer. "I was confident I could win, but anything could happen."
He revealed before coming to Morocco: "My best performance in competition was 73.18m, but I recently threw around 78m when training in South Africa."
Meyer insisted he was unfazed when Avramenko appeared to have spoiled his celebration party when unleashing his unexpected pb of 79.22m.
"The javelin throw is 80% in the mind and 20% in the body," said Meyer. "I was confident I could win, but anything could happen."
Hoffman in contrast after taking the shot title with a world leader for the year of 20.99m admitted he still felt shell-shocked by the victory.
"I can't explain how I could throw that far," said the stocky young throwing ace, although he ranked second in the world amongst the entrants before the competition got underway.
"It just feels great being a world champion. It's just unbelievable but I was confident of my chances to win." said the jubilant teenager.
