In the A qualifying group for the men’s Javelin, the reigning World Youth and Pan American Junior champion and 2004 junior world leader Julio Cesar of De Oliveira of Brazil, signalled his intentions by bettering the automatic qualifying mark of 69.60 with his first, and only the second throw of this morning’s competition, which landed at 70.36. Throwing immediately afterwards, the Australia’s junior champion Joshua Robinson, also landed a big throw, cutting the grass at 70.36 to seal an energy-saving qualification for the final.
Until the third round, none of the other 10 competitors could better 69.60, but Lohan Rautenbach of South Africa then unleashed a fine effort that sailed out to 73.59, to move into first position. With all rounds completed, only athletes from South America, Oceania and Africa, were definitely in the final, with the others waiting nervously for the results of the B group, which was scheduled for later in the morning. In the end, only Jan Syrovatko of the Czech Republic and Japan’s Kazunori Onitsuka would make it as A group non-automatic qualifiers.
In the B group, the athletes started competing with the knowledge that 67.21 had been the best non-automatic qualifying mark achieved in the A group by Syrovatko. The first athlete to throw, Russia’s Aleksey Tovarnov, fouled and the next, the 2003 African junior champion Raldu Potgieter, threw only 62.22, well below his best of 74.43. Then Hungary’s Zoltan Magyari stepped up and the spear flew out to 67.83 – the fourth best mark so far.
This must have motivated the next man up, Greece’s Yervasio Fillipidis, who had a great first throw of 70.58 – less than a metre off his pb of 71.49 which is the second best junior mark in the world in 2004 – to become the fourth automatic qualifier. He was soon joined by Tovarnov, who after two fouls hurled an impressive 73.74, a new personal best, to make the cut with his last throw of the competition. India’s Gurkirat Singh moved into seventh place with 66.84 with his second throw.
Magyari improved his best to 68.59 with his last throw, to move into third, but not for long, because Finland’s Ari Mannio also improved to 69.25, a personal best, to take over that third spot. With Avramenko managing 66.34 with the last throw of this group, it emerged that the best 7 from Group B had would join the best 5 from Group A in the final.
