2001 The Review - The Throws

2001 The ReviewThe Throws
13 November 2001 - Mirko Jalava and A Lennart Julin continue their historical review of the 2001 athletics season with an analysis of the throwing events.

Men's Throwing events
Mirko Jalava

The men’s throwing events are in the best shape of all event categories at the moment. All four disciplines have star athletes who have entered the World All-time 10 during the last few years. The standard has been very high at the major championships too, unlike in the 1970’s and 1980’s.

This is remarkable because doping controls are much tougher now than they were when the world records were made in shot put, discus throw and hammer throw. Even these marks, which seemed unreachable a few years ago, now seem like a real possibility for the best athletes with Virgiljus Alekna (LTU) already very close to Jürgen Schult’s (GER) world record in the discus which dates back to 1986.

Shot Put
This event was traditionally dominated by the United States and we have now come full circle. John Godina has been a medal candidate since he won the World Championships in Gothenburg in 1995 and Adam Nelson, who suddenly blasted to the top of the world during the Olympic year 2000 after a rather modest college career, has become his closest challenger. This year Nelson proved that being at a lower level before a major championships does not mean he will not do well: he still got a silver behind Godina in Edmonton.

World Champion Godina was the leading figure from the start of the season. He recorded a total of 10 competitions at 21m+ with a best of 21.95m in June. But this was not the world leading performance as World Junior Record holder Janus Robberts (RSA) won the NCAA Championships with an African Record of 21.97m. Robberts, who only competed five times outdoors this year, was very solid in his competitons until the Edmonton final. He even led the field in qualifying with 21.26m, but dropped to last place in the final with 20.18m.

The World Championships final had easily the best level ever. Finnish Olympic Champion Arsi Harju was the last competitor to qualify for the last three rounds with his 20.59m, about 0.5m more than needed in any of the earlier major championships. To show the high standard of the event in 2001, this was the first time all 12 competitors got over 20m.

IAAF World Rankings 2001
Men Shot Put

Discus throw
Lars Riedel has been the biggest name in this event for a number of years now, but has been pushed hard by Lithuanian Olympic Champion Virgiljus Alekna recently. Alekna also surprised most experts by threatening Jürgen Schult’s World Record at last year’s Lithuanian Championships. He missed the world record by a mere 20cm and his winning mark of 73.88m, remains number 2 on the World All-time list.

Since Alekna won the silver medal in Athens 1997, he has been on the podium at each major championships except Seville in 1999, when he finished fourth with 67.53m in a high-class competition. In Edmonton, Riedel was able to regain his number 1 position and claim the World Championship title by bettering his earlier season best by almost 2.5m.

With new faces like African Record holder Frantz Kruger (RSA) improving as well, the discus has a bright future. The Edmonton final was the best ever in the World Championships as Riedel’s winning mark of 69.72m was a Championship Record, Alekna’s 69.40m for second would have been enough to win all the previous competitions and Dmtriy Shevchenko’s (RUS) 67.57m for fourth place was the best non-medal winning result ever.

IAAF World Rankings 2001
Men's Discus Throw

Hammer throw
The Hammer Throw has reached the best standard in competition since Yuriy Sedykh and Sergey Litvinov. The year 2001 was remarkable because there were two throwers who reached a whole new level and, most importantly, were both very consistent. Olympic Champion Szymon Ziólkowski (POL) and Asian Record holder Koji Murofushi (JPN) collaborated to produce the best championship final ever in Edmonton.

Ziólkowski, who won the Olympic Gold medal with a result of only 80.02m, seemed determined to do something big this season. He smashed the Polish record in his first competition in March with 82.13m. Ziólkowski competed a total of 19 times, including the Edmonton qualification, with an incredible 15 marks over 80m. His average for all 19 competitions was 80.99! But Murofushi was also very solid. Competing in 13 finals, he only lost once, in the Edmonton final. And even then Murofushi produced 5 throws of 80m+ with an opener of 79.91m – for an average of 81.88.

Ziólkowski’s winning mark of 83.38m, another national record, and Murofushi’s 82.92m for silver, are worthy of any major championships even those of the 1980’s. That hammer throwing is doing very well indeed can be seen in the fact that while a throw of 80m usually gained a place in the World Top Ten, in 2001 there were a total of 18 throwers over that mark.

IAAF World Rankings 2001
Men's Hammer Throw

Javelin
In recent years, javelin has been all about Jan Zelezny (CZE) and 2001 proved no exception to this rule. But when we considering the results made by the best athletes, the event is at its highest peak since the new javelin model was introduced in 1986. However, there is some decline in the lower orders. For example, the number of 75m throwers has not been rising lately, but this could just be because the implement has now been used for 15 years.

World Record holder Zelezny, who has been affected by injuries, proved that he does not need to be in perfect shape. The Czech told the press at the start of the season that he would compete only a few times before the World Championships to save himself. Zelezny competed 11 times and only suffered two defeats. His only loss before Edmonton was at his debut in very bad conditions at Vantaa (FIN): a competition that was won by the 1999 World Champion Aki Parviainen.

Zelezny arrived in Edmonton and impressed immediately in qualification by throwing 90.76m with his first throw. The qualification was very interesting, because none of the top three throwers, Zelezny, Parviainen or Kostas Gatsioudis (GRE) had competed for over a month. Gatsioudis, who was in the best shape of all early in May with a world leading 91.27m, was unable to maintain his level in June or July, but easily advanced to the final. However, Parviainen needed all three throws and former World Record holder Steve Backley (GBR), who got over 90m for the first time in 9 years just before Edmonton, shocked his fans by not making it to the final at all.

Aki Parviainen also stunned everybody in the final by opening But Zelezny answered with his second throw of 92.80m and proved that he is a unique thrower, and perhaps should only be compared to the legendary vaulter Sergey Bubka. Gatsioudis recorded his second best throw of the season, 89.95m, to win bronze and this mark would have been enough for gold at most major championships.

IAAF World Rankings 2001
Men's Javelin Throw

Women’s Throws
A Lennart Julin 

Traditions continue to play an important part in modern athletics, and one major reason is that only nations with a tradition provide the attractive competitive opportunities that provide public exposure and inspire potential talents to continue training hard.

With the exception of the women’s javelin, throwing events are rarely a part of the prestigious and lucrative meetings of the circuit. So it is only logical that although about a decade has passed since the political transformation of Eastern Europe, nations from that area maintain their firm grip upon the women’s shot put and discus throw.

Shot Put
There is no consistent 20m-thrower around at the moment but Olympic champion Yanina Korolchik peaked perfectly in 2001 and produced her best throw of the year on the big occasion, i.e. in Edmonton, just as she did last year. World leading 37 year-old Larisa Peleshenko hit 20.79 at the Russian championships but her second best was the 19.37 that was only enough for 4th place in Edmonton.

In terms of consistency over the entire summer, the experienced Astrid Kumbernuss was the best of them all with ten 19m-meetings spread out over the period May-August capped by a triumph at the Grand Prix Final in September. The rising star of the event appears to be 1998 World Junior Champion Nadezhda Ostapchuk, who took silver at the World Indoors, gold at the European U23s and second place at the Grand Prix final. Her only marginal setback was the 7th place at World Outdoors.

Otherwise the influx of new talent is almost non-existent and the average age of the upper echelon appears to increase by one year every year.  A further drop in the performance levels in the near future is therefore likely.

IAAF World Rankings 2001
Women's Shot Put

Discus Throw
“Status quo” is a relevant description of the situation in the discus. The main contenders, who have been around for a decade or so, continue to dominate: Natalya Sadova, Ellina Zvereva, Nicoleta Grasu, Franka Dietzsch and Anastasia Kelesidou occupied the top-5 positions in Edmonton where the only“surprise” was that Sydney bronze medallist Irina Yatchenko ended up as low as 10th.

The only representatives of a “new” generation to reach the Edmonton final were 23-year olds Seilala Sua (USA) and Vera Pospisilová (Czech Republik). So the final comment concerning the Shot Put above could be echoed again here.

IAAF World Rankings 2001
Women's Discus Throw

Hammer Throw
Olga Kuzenkova remained the undisputed No 1 statistically, as she was the only consistent 70m-thrower and had a gap of over two metres between herself and the No 2 on the yearly list. However, a well deserved gold medal eluded her once again. For the fourth consecutive year, Kuzenkova ended up with the silver medal at the big championships and this time the losing margin was a frustratingly meagre 4 cm!

The question now is whether Kuzenkova, who belongs to the pioneer generation of this fairly young event, will ever get that gold medal. Because the challenge from the second generation of throwers about ten years her juniors is stiffening almost by the day. New world champion Yipsi Moreno and bronze medallist Bronwyn Eagles have both just turned 21, 4th placer (and Grand Prix champion) Kamila Skolimowska is even two years younger and 5th placer Manuela Montebrun is just one year older!

Considering that age profile and knowing that the hammer throw is a highly technical event that takes many years to fully master, we can expect standards to continue to rise. What makes the situation even more exciting is the fact that the talent is spread all around the world.

Because the top 13 places on the 2001 World list are occupied by athletes representing 13 different nations: Russia, Poland, Hungary, Cuba, USA, France, Australia, Finland, Belarus, Slovakia, Italy, Great Britain and Germany! Has there ever been any event with that kind of diversity of nationality at the very peak?

IAAF World Rankings 2001
Women's Hammer Throw

Javelin Throw
When Norway’s Trine Hattestad decided to make 2000 the final year of her extraordinary career she did it as the undisputed No 1 - world record holder and Olympic champion. But she has not been able to enjoy that supreme status in retirement for very long, because two-time World Junior champion Osleidys Menéndez chose 2001 as the year when she would fulfil all expectations:

In early July in Rethymno she smashed Hattestad’s record by over two metres and then went on to surpass the previous record again when winning the world title in Edmonton and the World Student title in Beijing! The Cuban is the undisputed No 1 and her seasonal record could arguably be called the best ever in the history of the event.

The problem with the latter statement is that it is not easily backed up statistically as the specification of the implement was modified not just in 1999 but also in 1991. This first change, however, seems to have been forgotten and its consequences on the top results level never fully recognised.

With the pre-1991 implement the record was 80.00 - with the 1991-1999 implement the unofficial record was almost 8 metres shorter (Hattestad 72.12)!  So it would be very unfair indeed to “brush off” Menéndez’ new-javelin world record of 71.54 as “cheap” because it is a very young event implement-wise. The status of all-time greatness is amplified by the fact that she threw almost five metres further than the second placed competitor in the 2001 world list!

Behind the Cuban there was a fairly large group of throwers (63-66 metres level)  who took turns at beating each other during the season.

IAAF World Rankings 2001
Women's Javelin Throw

See The 2001 Reviews of: The Sprints - The Jumps - Middle Distance - The Throws -