Oslo javelin winner Tatsiana Khaladovich (© Giancarlo Colombo)
The 2016 European javelin champion Tatsiana Khaladovich has enjoyed a successful 2018, posting a Belarus record of 67.47m to claim victory in the Oslo Diamond League before capping the season with victory in the Diamond League final in Zurich. Here the 27-year-old talks a little of her athletics journey so far and her attraction to the javelin.
“My first experience of throwing came at middle school when I was 12 years old. Back then, we threw the tennis ball and I could throw it further than the boys, it made me feel very happy.
“On the back of this, I was invited to sports school for a six-month period where I underwent multi-events training. It was not until I was 14 did I start to throw javelin with the man who is my current coach, Valeriy Oksenchuk.
“It did not take long to learn to love the event. In fact, I loved javelin from the moment I held it in my hands for the first time!
“As a younger athlete, my hero was Barbora Spotakova, the two-time Olympic champion and world record-holder from the Czech Republic. I loved watching her from a young age and it was always fantastic when she threw the javelin more than 70m.
“Even today when I am injured or sick and I am unable to train, it is a sad feeling and when I can’t train I like to be able to do some form of exercise.
“There are many elements to the javelin I like, it is such an unpredictable event and you rarely know who is going to win. One day you can throw 50 metres and the other 70 metres. It is an event where many mistakes happen – everything can change with the final throw.
“I am at my happiest during training when I am accruing new knowledge and learning new movement patterns. During a competition, I’m at my happiest when I get that adrenaline rush.
“If I was not throwing the javelin I would be a vet, which is something I dreamed of since I was young but I am very happy with what I do, because I am successful at javelin.
Steve Landells for the IAAF
