Gatsioudis allows room for improvement
Paul Halford for IAAF 

29 May 2001 - Kostas Gatsioudis said he still needed to make improvements to his technique after producing a year-leading throw of 91.27m in Madrid on Saturday. 

The Greek javelin thrower surprised himself with the distance as he earned maximum points for his club Panellinios at the European Champion Clubs Cup.

Speaking in Greek, Gatsioudis, whose national record of 91.69m last June was the world's longest throw of the season, admitted: "I was expecting a big throw like this, but not now. 

"I still have some technical problems and the javelin is not flying the way it should." 

"Once I get over these problems, I will be able to do something better," declared the world championships silver medallist. 

Despite being the most prolific javelin thrower in the last two years, recording 10 marks over 87 metres in each of them, the 27-year-old's best championship performance is his world silver medal from Seville. 

He hopes to soon change that by triumphing at this year's World Championships in Edmonton.  He also intends to compete in the year's seven Golden League meetings, trying to win at least five of them to secure a share of the jackpot of 50kg of gold. 

"My biggest target this year is of course Edmonton and the Golden League series where I will try to take some of the jackpot back home," he said. 

His coach Antonis Papadimitrou, while surprised by his charge's winning distance in Madrid, was full of praise for him. 

"Kostas is a great athlete," he said.  "He has worked very hard on the problems he had and the results are obvious.

"Now Kostas can relax and focus on the next big throw." 

Papadimitrou's main hope is that his athlete can reproduce his best form in Edmonton, after disappointing at each of the last two Olympics where he placed tenth and sixth respectively.

"I hope he will produce there a new Greek record and take the gold medal," he said. "His star will shine again. I'm sure of it. 

"I only hope it will shine when it really matters."

The two men most likely to stop him doing so met nine days ago in Vantaa, Finland. Aki Parviainen threw 84.13m in difficult conditions to beat Olympic champion Jan Zelezny, who recorded 82.83m.

Gatsioudis is set to compete in front of his home fans at the Athens Grand Prix on June 11th.