Steffi Nerius of Germany in action in the Women's Javelin at the 2009 World Athletics Final (© Getty Images)
It does not happen often that an athlete retires at the very top. More usually, a World or Olympic champion never manages to reach those heights again, and though they may continue competing at a high level, they fade away to such a degree that no-one realises that they've stopped. How nice then that Steffi Nerius has marked the last days of her javelin career not only with a first world gold, but also a neat closing of the circle with a final appearance at a venue so important at the start of her career.
That venue was of course Thessaloniki where the 19 year-old Nerius won European Junior bronze in 1991. She also won bronze (or $12,000) there at the 2009 World Athletics Final at almost twice that age. There were no fireworks or special ceremonies on her behalf, but the stadium announcers rightly picked out the significance of the moment as the careers of one of the greatest ever javelin throwers came to an end. She was given a fitting send-off to applause from the generous crowd.
In between the Thessalonikis of 1991 and 2009, Nerius has packed in a great deal of action including a record number 139 x 60m+ competitions (with the 1999 model), eight World Championships, four Olympic finals and the 2006 European title.
But the best came last, a World title in front of her home crowd in Berlin. She had struggled to qualify, then two days later her opener of 67.30 held up to make her Germany's first female World Champion in the Javelin Throw.
So no prizes for guessing what would be her highlight of a long career.
"My best memory is three weeks ago," she explained, referring to Berlin. "I thought it would be great to get a medal lin my hometown in my last big competition. It was a dream to get the gold medal and win the biggest thing in my career."
So having done that, were there any second thoughts about stopping ? "No," she said, firmly.
In fact her decision had been made years ago. "I think it was in 2004, they said that in 2009 it would the World Championships in Berlin and I thought okay, if everything is okay with my health I'll go on to 2009 and then I'll finish."
Nerius had become known as one of the few world-class field-eventers with a trademark, a headband bearing words in the language of the country in which she is competing. How did the tradition start?
"I've worn a headband since 1995," she recounted, "but it started with some words in 2003. A friend of mine said a plain headband is a little bit boring, I'll make you something for Paris and it said "Merci Paris." And then it started." The final one actually had the words "bye bye" in three languages, Greek, English and German.
Having heard about her favourite moment in 20 years of javelin throwing, I ventured to ask what she has enjoyed least about her career. She did not have to think for long: "When you go to hotel airport-stadium, hotel-airport-stadium like you are a gladiator, I hate this. It's good when I can stay at home."
Now I would loved to have asked more questions, but she had just been told that the athlete's bus was due to leave the arena. Remembering her previous answer, I felt it was pushing my luck to jeapordise her last ever stadium-hotel journey as an athlete. Now she will devote her full time to coaching athletes with disabilities at her club Bayer Leverkusen. Our loss will be their gain.
Mark Butler for the IAAF
Steffi Nerius was born in Bergen auf Rügen on July 1, 1972. She is 1.78 tall and weighs 72kg
Her major championship placings:
IAAF World Championships: 93-9th, 95-11th, 99-dnq (16th), 2001-5th, 2003/2005/2007-bronze, 2009-gold Olympic Games: 1996-9th, 2000-4th, 2004-silver, 2008-5th IAAF World Cup: 2004-4th, 2006-1st IAAF Grand Prix/World Athletics Final: 2000-5th, 2002-4th, 200/32005/2006/2007-2nd, 2004/2008/2009-3rd European Championships: 1998-6th, 2002-silver, 2006-gold European Cup: 1995/2003/2005-1st, 2000/2002/2004-3rd European Junior Championships: 1991-bronze
She was German Champion in 2001/2003-2006/2009
Annual progression at javelin throw (* old specification)
1985 30.12*
1987 45.16*
1988 48.00*
1989 56.88*
1990 56.14*
1991 60.02*
1992 59.46*
1993 60.26*
1995 68.42*
1996 69.42*
1997 64.58*
1998 67.33*
1999 61.56
2000 65.76
2001 63.72
2002 64.55
2003 64.42
2004 65.82
2005 66.52
2006 65.82
2007 65.78
2008 68.34
2009 67.30
