Andreas Thorkildsen wins the javelin on home soil in Oslo in 2008 (© Getty Images)
In the men’s Javelin Throw with USA’s World bronze medallist Breaux Greer now added to the US team but seemingly after injury and surgery not in any condition to make an impression upon the outcome of the Olympic title, everyone seems to be just talking about Tero Pitkämäki, 25, vs Andreas Thorkildsen, 26, respectively the World and Olympic champions.
Without taking anything away from the undoubted talent of Australia’s Jarrod Bannister, that his unexpected Area record of 89.02m, thrown on the 29 February in Brisbane, Australia, still heads the current world season list is testimony to what so far has been a low key year for this usually spectacular event.
There is one argument that the major players are keeping their cards close to their chest with the Olympic prize at stake but that would be to misread the situation. The simple truth seems after three seasons when 90m releases tended to rain from the sky, no one can currently control their technique sufficiently to threaten such a distance.
Thorkildsen after coaxing himself through injuries last year, now finds himself in great shape and unable to control his technique with the full power he possesses again.
Pitkämäki had his best ever winter’s training but then fell foul of what seems to have been a simple muscle cramp in his side when he took a narrow win in Berlin on 1 June. Recovered from the spasm but perhaps still conscious that it might just as unexpectedly reappear, the World champion is having problems controlling his runway speed, the result being that his spear is released too high and stalls.
The two men could not be much closer matched this season, with just 3cm separating their 2008 bests - 87.73 to Thorkildsen and 87.70 to Pitkämäki. Both results came via Golden League victories, the Norwegian’s in Oslo (6 June) and the Finn’s in Rome (11 July), each defeating the other in the process.
Besides this pair, and Bannister, 23, whose best performance since his world season’s lead is an 84.76m second place in Paris on 18 July, who else should we consider as an Olympic medal candidate?
Tero Järvenpää, is 23-years-old, and has come on in leaps and bounds in the last 12 months. At the Osaka World champs last summer, Järvenpää took 8th place behind Pitkämäki’s gold medal, in what was his first major senior championship.
In 2008, Järvenpää has been the most consistent of all the top throwers in the world, with his seven competitions all above 83.66, and three over 86.49, with his present PB of 86.68 being set winning the Finnish title in Tampere ahead of Pitkämäki at the end of July. On the international circuit he has taken two second places (Oslo and Rome) and one third place (Berlin) in the three Golden League meets which he has contested.
If any Finn was to win in Beijing the country would achieve its 8th Olympic title in this men’s discipline, if Thorkildsen was to defend his title, Norway would have secured their third Olympic crown in the history of the spear.
Still throwing well at 35-years-old is 2003 World champion Sergey Makarov of Russia, who was the bronze medallist in Athens 2004. While not so consistent these days, his defeat of Pitkämäki on 6 July and the distance of 86.88m confirms he is a medal threat.
South Africa’s 21-year-old Robert Oosthuizen, the former World Junior champion, has also thrown long this year, improving his PB by over two metres to 86.80m at altitude in South Africa on 1 March. In Europe he has been a shadow of that with 81.54m his only 80m+ performance of four competitions this summer.
On the present form guide the two Latvians, Vadims Vasilevskis (85.78) and Eriks Rags (85.05) are the only other obvious challengers with a championship pedigree. The former is of course the Olympic silver medallist from 2004.
Chris Turner for the IAAF
