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THROWING NEWS2002 World Throws in Review From the IAAF In the penultimate episode of their review of the 2002 Athletics year, statisticians A. Lennart Julin and Mirko Jalava reach the topic of the throwing events.
Shot Therefore, in hindsight it is not that strange that the seasonal peak came before the main part of the international season. The US trio of Adam Nelson, Kevin Toth and John Godina produced three thrilling encounters that really captured the spectators in the Portland and Eugene Grand Prix meets and the US championships. Nelson had the series 22.51 - 21.95 - 22.22, Toth 21.78 - 22.19 - 21.53 and Godina 21.89 - 21.91 - 21.91 (consistency ....)! Nelson's 22.51 was the longest put in the world for 12 years, but despite that Òmarketing toolÓ his European tour only consisted of stops at Zagreb, Salamanca, Helsinki and Linz, before the prestigious late season with the IAAF Grand Prix Final and the World Cup. Nelson won both those concluding encounters to underline his No. 1 position this year. The Europeans had one more significant meet to aim for - the European Championships. Leading up to them, Manuel Martinez and Joachim Olsen had the most impressive sets of marks, but in the pouring Munich rain it was glide technician Yuriy Belonog who best handled the adverse weather conditions. Discus At the European championships, a wet and slippery ring and no wind at all, didn't stop him from hitting 68.83m, winning by over two metres. And then at the World Cup in Madrid he let loose the longest throw ever in this kind of international championship setting, when he sent the discus flying over 71 meters and won by almost five metres! Everything else achieved in the event this year of course pales in comparison with Fazekas' exploits, especially as the previous No. 1's, like Virgilijus Alekna (LTU) and Lars Riedel (GER) had below-par years. But just as in the shot put one could trace a positive overall trend, in the sense that more athletes, from more nations, are showing consistency at world class level. A typical example was given by Spain's Mario Pestano, who although he didn't improve his PB, had by far his best season getting consistent in the 65 metre territory also at the major international meets (e.g. 4th at the Europeans, 3rd in the World Cup, 2nd at Zurich GL). By contrast, the Frenchman Jean-Claude Retel with his 68.90 mark (4th on the World List), was one and a half metres ahead of Pestano, but didn't have any other known meet beyond 62m! Discus - IAAF WORLD RANKINGS - as of 17 Dec 2002 Hammer In 1992-1995, it took between 74.16 and 74.86 to get into the final, in 1996-1999 it took between 75.10 and 75.75, however, on the last three occasions it has been necessary to throw 76.61 (Sydney '00), 76.72 (Edmonton '01) and 77.78 (Munich '02) respectively!! That is correct, 77.78 metres just to get into the final of the European Championships! So although the world record of 86.74 set in 1986, has remained completely unthreatened for yet another year, the overall standards of the event reached a Ònew all time highÓ in 2002. In a situation with perhaps 15 throwers capable of winning on any given day, the two most consistent factors were European champion Adrian Annus (HUN) and Asian champion Koji Murofushi (JPN). That both of them are 28 years old (born 1974) further underlines that this is an event, where almost without exception, it takes a number of years to complete the transformation from young talent to a senior athlete, and to consistently produce 80m-plus. The 24 years old statistical list leader Aleksey Zagorniy, illustrates this quite well: A couple of 82-83m meets early on but during the summer he mostly hit 77, although he also proved his potential by getting over 80 metres in both the Russian championships, and the qualifying round of the European Championships. Looking towards 2003 the most intriguing question is whether the trend of rapidly rising standards will continue at the same pace, slow down, or come to a halt, or even reverse? Will it take 76, 77, 78 or perhaps 79 metres to get into the final at the World Championships in Paris? Hammer - IAAF WORLD RANKINGS - as of 17 Dec 2002 Javelin The winner Jan Zelezny (CZE) had a very limited season where the only positive thing was that he did manage to reach the final of the European Championships despite the injury problems that forced him to have an operation in the autumn. Silver medallist Aki Parviainen (FIN) had his operation last autumn but still never managed to recapture his best form. Reaching the Munich final was also his most memorable achievement in a year which he will probably want to forget. Bronze medallist Kostas Gatsioudis (GRE) had what probably could be called the shortest season ever of a world class athlete: One throw! That throw in a meet in Thessaloniki went over 91 metrse but in the process he re-injured himself, so his 2002 was over and done within a few seconds. However, that the top-3 of 2001 were effectively missing is not to say that the event was weak in 2002. At least at the very top, Russia's Sergey Makarov put together an absolutely brilliant seasonal record. His best mark of 92.61 metres made him No. 3 of all-time. He also had two more meets beyond 90m and averaged 88.50 for his 14 meets during the summer! In short, Makarov had one of the very best seasons in the history of the event! The only minor blemish to Makarov's 2002 record was that he suffered one loss: At the European Championships he threw a mighty 88.05 but still had to settle for second place, as Britain's championship specialist Steve Backley grabbed his 4th straight European title, thanks to his season's best throw of 88.54. Despite Makarov's brilliance the international javelin year as a whole was somewhat down (in contrast to the hammer year). This showed up by the fact that 79.04 sufficed to reach the Munich final, while it had been necessary to throw 79.63 four years earlier at the last Europeans in Budapest, 81.61 in the Seville Worlds in 1999, 82.24 in the 2000 Sydney Olympics, and 81.78 in the 2001 Edmonton World Championships. The influx of new talent was obviously not strong enough to compensate for the losses at the top end. It is also remarkable to find the top Finnish thrower as low down on the year list as 14th place. Has that ever happened any time before?
The women's throwing events find themselves in contrasting positions nowadays. The shot put and discus have impossibly hard World records to break, while on the contrary in the hammer and javelin, the world mark is up for grabs because of the young age of the events - the javelin because of the new implement being used. The women's javelin has been quite disappointing since 1999 when the new model was introduced. It is quite surprising that the top level was already established during the first year. In fact, 2002 showed some general loss in the length of throws. 1999 already had six throwers at 66m or better, 2000 had 6 too, 2001 - 4, but 2002 only produced 2 athletes of this standard. The Discus has lost some of it's quality too, although Suzy Powell's (USA) wind assisted world leader was better than usual - 69.44m. The Hammer is still going strong as a young event should, this year there were eight 70m+ throwers, one more than 2001, where as the year 2000 had 5, and 1999, a total of 4. Shot Korzhanenko was one of those Russian top athletes who only competed a few times during the season. The Russian putted a lowly 17.52 in the Russian Indoor Championships, her only indoor competition, and then competed four times outdoors Ð all competitions over 20m, and with only one loss to Svetlana Krivelyova at the National Championships. The world of women's shot has really changed because previously Russian putters used to have big seasonal bests but when competing abroad were usually found far from the form shown in Russia. Now they are getting even better marks in big meetings irrespective of venue. Although Astrid Kumbernuss (GER) and Vita Pavlysh (UKR) are still throwing, it's quite clear that there will soon be new names at the top of the major championships. Of course, European Champion Korzhanenko is only 28 and could have many more years at the top, but there is a young Chinese, 21-year-old Li Meiju, who raised her PB to 18.95 and is the best shot putter from the once so dominant China. Li's mentor is Asian Record holder (21.76 in 1988) Li Meisu, who also trains with her. She ended her career at the 9th National Games in 2001 still grabbing 8th place with 18.39, despite being 42-year-old at the time! One big question mark is 2000 Olympic and 2001 World Champion Yanina Korolchik (BLR). Although, she won those two major championships and is only 25 years old, she did not compete at all in 2002. Depth in the women's shot put has generally been going down for a long time now. In 1996, there were 17 women at 19m or better, 1997 - 13, 1998 - 11, 1999 - 16, 2000 - 14, 2001 Ð 13, and in 2002 only 9 attained that level. Shot - IAAF WORLD RANKINGS - as of 17 Dec 2002 Discus The biggest competition of the year was the European Championships in Munich, and the results really summed up a bad year for the event. A record low 56.56m was enough for 12th position in the qualification round and progression to the final. The final didn't bring any better form, as the European Champion - a surprise one - Ekaterini Voggoli (GRE), only had to throw 64.31 to win from Natalya Sadova (RUS), 64.12. In 2002 there were 16 throwers over 63m, where as in 2001 there were 21, with 28 in 2000, 26 in 1999 and 25 in 1998. Therefore it's quite clear that women's discus is nowhere near it's best form, even when only thinking about the last 10 years. Discus - IAAF WORLD RANKINGS - as of 17 Dec 2002 Hammer Poland's Sydney Olympic Champion, 19-year-old Kamila Skolimowska came really close to win the European Championships, but was beaten by Kuzenkova in the end. Another fine European thrower this season was France's Manuela Montebrun, the European Championship bronze medallist, who threw a massive eight times over 70m during 2002. The biggest upset of the event came at the IAAF World Cup where the 20-year-old Chinese Gu Yuan, who won the Chinese National Games last year, was victorious with her last throw, ahead of all the favourites (70.75). Gu's win was perhaps on reflection not that big a surprise, as she had already won the Asian Championships with a continental record of 71.10 in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Gu's start to the season was poor, as she was troubled with injuries and could hardly get over 60 metres in her first two competitions. Although, the hammer is still a young event, it has been going forward quite fast. In 1998 there were 9 throwers at 65m or better, 1999 had 22, 2000 - 36, 2001 - 39 and in 2002, a total of 44 throwers of this standard were produced. Hammer - IAAF WORLD RANKINGS - as of 17 Dec 2002 Javelin It was not an easy year for Cuba's Osleidis MenŽndez, the World record holder, either. She was widely predicted to be one of the athletes who would surely get their share of gold from the IAAF Golden League Jackpot, but ultimately she was nowhere near winning all the competitions. The Cuban had a couple of 67m results, but mainly she had to cope with a season in the 63-64m category, which was far less than her form in 2001. Competition or not, inside information from Greece prior to the European Championships in Munich told that Mirela Manjani was in very good shape, and that was proved at the championships with the Greek throwing 67.47m for gold and the World season lead - just 4cm off from her national record set in the 2000 Sydney Olympic final. Otherwise, the 2002 javelin season was quite dull. There were some new names with good marks like Kelly Morgan (GBR), but she wasn't able to repeat the good performances in the bigger meetings. The world top was much thinner than in earlier years, with only four throwers managing to break 65m. Also, the world leading mark of 67.47m, was the lowest since the introduction of the new javelin model in 1999. Javelin - IAAF WORLD RANKINGS - as of 17 Dec 2002 If you have news, results or information that you would like to share, please let us know by using our submissions form or contact Larry Steinke. [ MEET INFORMATION ] [ ANALYSIS & TIPS ] [ THROWS ARTICLES ] [ INTERVIEWS ] [ RECORDS ] [ RESULTS ] [ CLASSIFIEDS ] [ HOT LINK ARCHIVE ] [ DISCUSSION FORUM ] [ SUBMISSIONS ] [ THROWERS QUIZ ] [ GUESTBOOK ] |
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