News22 Dec 2009


2009 - End of Year Reviews – THROWS

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Steffi Nerius of Germany celebrates a throw in the women's Javelin Throw final (© Getty Images)

MonteCarloIn their second of eight 'end of season' reviews, renowned statisticians A. Lennart Julin (SWE) and Mirko Jalava (FIN) look back at the 2009 highlights in the THROWS.

MEN -

Men’s Shot Put

Christian Cantwell has belonged to the world elite since 2002 topping the world list three times and never being below 7th place. However, if one looks a little bit closer a very distinct pattern emerges: Cantwell's form has always peaked in the spring/early summer having his longest throw of the year in May three times, in June three times and in July once. Another illustration: His seven outdoor 22m marks have all been achieved between late April and early July.

That is until 2009! Because this year we saw a new and completely different Christian Cantwell who hit his peak form when the season peaked: Three 22m meets that all came between 15 August and 12 September and which included the World Championships and the World Athletics Final!

Not even the master of peaking for championships – Olympic champion Tomasz Majewski – managed to handle "the new" Cantwell. In the Berlin final e.g. Cantwell took the early lead with 21.54m in the first round, was passed by Majewski's 21.68m in the fourth and when the Pole improved to 21.91m in the fifth that previously would have sealed the victory. But "the new" Cantwell could muster a counterstrike the very next minute: 22.03m.

No doubt that Cantwell and Majewski were two main shot putters in 2009 as they were the only throwers consistent at 21m+ (Cantwell 10 of 13 meets, Majewski 14 of 19). Reese Hoffa who has been the most consistent in recent years was a little bit down in that aspect in 2009 with only a 50% (7 of 14 meets) success rate at 21m+.

"Experienced" is very much the adjective to describe the top echelon of world shot putting. The top-10 have an average age of 29 years and typically the surprise bronze medallist in Berlin was former youth/junior star (won World juniors 13 years ago) Ralf Bartels of Germany who now at 31 displayed his best ever form!

So when his countryman David Storl this year completely dominated the junior scene raising the World junior record with the 6 kg implement by three quarters of a metre to 22.73m and becoming only the seventh junior ever to surpass 20 metres with the senior implement that is quite a good omen for the future of German shot putting (at the 2016 Rio Olympics and beyond ...).

Looking at the general quality in 2009 it was a quite normal year in recent history with the usual numbers of approximately ten, fifty and a hundred over 21m, 20m and 19m respectively.

Men’s Discus Throw

The reigning World and Olympic champion Gerd Kanter came into the World Championships with a perfect seasonal record of wins and the top-8 performances of the year which made him one of the safest bets for gold. But one of the things that make competitive sports so fascinating is that it is not guaranteed to work out according to the general expectations.

What probably upset Kanter in that final was that just as the Estonian was going through his final preparations for his opening throw of the final Piotr Malachowski hit the throw of his life – a new Polish record of 68.77m which was a distance not even Kanter could be confident to surpass. He was next up and obviously affected by Malachowski's great opener, Kanter only mustered 65.91m.

So rather than taking charge of the competition he was clearly behind and when the first round was concluded Kanter was in fourth also behind German Robert Harting's near-PB 68.25m and former No. 1 Virgilijus Alekna's 66.36m. And as the competition went on Kanter had to be content to pass Alekna to get the bronze.

The logical conclusion would be that Malachowski's 68.77m which so shocked the favourite would hold up for the gold, as it would take a new PB for Harting to reach first place. Malachowski even strengthened his case by in the fifth round improving his national record further to 69.15m! Surely that sealed the victory?

But once more logic was set aside as Harting, fired up by the home crowd, on his very last throw roared the discus out to 69.43m! The arena exploded and the crowd probably forgot that Malachowski still had one chance to answer. The Pole certainly didn't fold under the pressure but despite getting his fifth mark over 67 metres on that evening he had to finally settle for silver after leading almost from start to finish.

Neither Harting nor Malachowski managed to match that kind of throwing in the closing stages of the season and Kanter was unable to reclaim his great form and instead the dominant  post-season thrower was the 37-year-old Alekna who won the World Athletics Final.

But it will be most interesting to see whether "youngsters" (i.e. in their mid-twenties) Harting and Malachowski will be able to build upon their Berlin success in the future or if Kanter will reclaim his No. 1 position next year.

Then we will probably also have Iran's Ehsan Hadadi back in the mix. After his brilliant first half of the summer of 2008 Hadadi was out with injury for more than a year but made a promising return in November when he won the Asian Championships with almost 65 metres.

And then of course there is super prodigy Mykyta Nesterenko of Ukraine whose rapid rise to the top at least paused somewhat in 2009 although he of course claimed the European Junior title. Distance-wise Nesterenko at age 18 was not as strong as at age 17 in 2008 dropping some four metres with both the junior (from 70.13m to 65.73m) and the senior (from 65.73m to 61.90m) implements.

Men’s Hammer Throw

The international Hammer season had two distinct faces. The first face was that of Hungary's Krisztian Pars who won all his competitions leading up to the World Championships displaying an extraordinary consistency around the 80m-line (13 of 18 meets within plus/minus 1 m!). In Berlin however he had to be content with 77.45m which turned out insufficient even for a medal.
 
The second face was that of Slovenian Olympic champion Primoz Kozmus who once more managed to peak perfectly for the second half of the season: First a 80m-mark in early August in his final tune-up competition, then 80.84m to take gold in Berlin 1½ metres ahead of the No. 2, then World leading 81.77m in Zagreb followed by new PB 82.58m at home in Celje!

Then after confirming his position as the current top hammer thrower by winning also the World Athletics Final the 30-year-old reigning World and Olympic champion surprised everyone by announcing his retirement. It is very uncommon that someone for other reasons than injuries ends his career when actually on top of the world. But it must be remembered that to stay No. 1 in competitive sports motivation has to be 100%, which could be a problem if you have achieved just about everything you once aimed for.

Behind Kozmus and Pars 2009 was very much a year of "recharging batteries" and there was a drop statistically at all levels. Most conspicuously at the just-below-the-very-top level: The number of 77+ throwers that was 42 in the Olympic year 2008 was cut almost in half to 22.

Looking at trends over the last decade the championship standards - as measured by the cut-off mark for the top-12 reaching the final at the major championships (Olympics, Worlds, Europeans) - have dropped somewhat towards the end. During the first half (2000-2004) it was between 76.56m and 76.72m four times out of five with 77.78m (the 2002 Europeans!!) being the all-time high. During the second half of the decade (2005-2009) it has fallen more than a metre and varied between 74.69m and 75.92m.

However, it should at the same time be noted that there was a sharp improvement among the juniors in 2009: The No. 10 mark, which in 2002-2008 has hovered around 73-74 metres suddenly rose to 76.34m! This indicates a growing interest in the event – especially as ten different nations were represented on the 2009 Top-10! – which in turn points to a resurgence also in the senior ranks in years to come, getting especially noticeable in the middle of the next decade.

Men’s Javelin Throw

2009 was a somewhat paradoxical year for the Javelin Throw. On one hand the steady progress depth-wise in recent years continued. The number of 80+ and 77+ throwers has since the last post-Olympic year 2005 grown considerably: From 34 and 80 to 52 and 98. But on the other hand if you were looking for throwers really consistent at great distances they were very few indeed.  It seems that almost all throwers just hit one or maybe two good marks each.

The main exception was of course Norway’s Andreas Thorkildsen who never dipped below 82m and who – although he didn't win all of his thirteen meets – was at 87m+ in the World Championships, the World Athletics Final, three Golden League meetings, one more meet against top opponents plus his national championships.

Once more his toughest opponent was Finn Tero Pitkämäki who was the winner in the four meets (three Golden League and the European Team Championships) that Thorkildsen lost. Pitkämäki had 6 of his 12 meets at 86m+ and none below 81m, but unexpectedly missed out on the medals in Berlin finishing a disappointing fifth.

This strange year for javelin throwing the athletes joining Thorkildsen on the Berlin victory stand were Cuba's Guillermo Martinez and Japan's Yukifumi Murakami, both very much unheralded: Martinez had reached the finals in both the 2005 and 2007 World Championships but not really figured in any of them (10th and 9th) and Murakami had been eliminated in the qualifying round in two Olympics and two previous Worlds.

For perennial javelin power Finland on the other hand the World Championships was a disappointment. Displaying an impressive resurgence in their old "national event", Finland had four throwers in the top-7 on the World list coming into Berlin.  But despite getting all their four throwers into the final they had to be content with the discrete positions of No. 5, 6, 9 and 11.

But still Finland is very much the market leader in javelin throwing: Of the 52 throwers at 80m+ no less than 10 were from Finland with Russia (5), Latvia and USA (4 each) being "the best of the rest of the world"! And behind Pitkämäki both Teemu Wirkkala and newcomer Ari Mannio demonstrated consistency at the 83-84 metres level.


World Lists [Shot Put][Discus Throw][Hammer Throw][Javelin Throw]


WOMEN -

25-year-old Valerie Vili from New Zealand continued as the brightest star of the women’s throwing events, extending her win streak to a respectable 25 competitions in 2009. The Former World Youth and Junior champion added a second consecutive World title in addition to the Olympic gold from last season winning all of her 13 finals of the 2009 campaign. Pole Anita Wlodarczyk, 24, took charge of the women’s Hammer Throw in almost similar fashion only losing one competition during the summer season. Wlodarczyk entered the World Championships as a favourite and did it all in Berlin winning the World title with a World record. 37-year-old German Steffi Nerius surprised the other favourites with her first throw in Berlin winning an unforgettable gold at last before a home crowd. Although the women’s discus season wasn’t an impressive one there was still a nice fresh impact to the event with a surprise winner in Berlin, 21-year-old Dani Samuels from Australia.

Women’s Shot Put

It was clear from the start of the season that Valerie Vili would continue her reign in the women’s shot put. The Kiwi athlete came to the season with a win streak dating back to December 2007 and wasn’t too close to surrendering during the 2009 season. Vili started with an impressive 20.25m result in New Zealand in February and was the world leader for the rest of the season. A 20.69m Oceania record in Rio de Janeiro in May was further notice about her powers and although she didn’t exactly win clearly in Berlin, her gold medal was never is much doubt there either. A 20.44m winning mark was enough for her second World Championships gold, 24 centimetres better than German Nadine Kleinert’s 20.20m personal best for the silver. Vili went on to break another record with a 21.07m toss to win the last World Athletics Final in Thessaloniki, the furthest throw in the world for more than four years. Vili now has 20 competitions over 20 metres and is closing in on the best active athlete in that category, Belarussian Nadzeya Ostapchuk, who has 26.

Vili’s good performances weren’t all, there were plenty of other positive things in the women’s Shot Put this season. Five athletes exceeded 20 metres, a remarkable achievement as this has not happened for 15 years since 1994. 34-year-old Nadine Kleinert had a good season and crowned that nicely with a 20.20m personal best bettering her four-year-old 20.06m PB and a silver medal from the Berlin World Championships with that result. There were also two new 20-metre throwers with 24-year-old Russian Anna Avdeyeva reaching 20.07m at the national championships and an even more impressive one, just 20-year-old Gong Lijiao of China, who won the bronze medal in Berlin and followed that up with a 20.35m toss to win the National Games in Jinan in October.

The United States continues to be the country with the best depth with 21 athletes in the world top 100. China has 13 for second place and Germany eight for third.

Women’s Discus Throw

The women’s discus season was not the best possible in terms of results. The reigning Olympic champion from Beijing, 30-year-old American Stephanie Brown Trafton got the early world leader of 66.21m in obviously good wind conditions in California in May, but other than this 65 metres seemed to be a really tough distance this season. Russian Natalya Sadova won the national championships with 65.40m in July, but wasn’t in form in Berlin and the World Championships medals were pretty much open for anyone to challenge before the final.

Fortunately if the results weren’t top class, the Berlin competition was a good one with several lead changes and a surprising winner too. 21-year-old Australian Dani Samuels became another athlete to win World Youth, Junior and Senior Championships with a 65.44m personal best in Berlin. The Aussie youngster who had reached 60 metres already as an 18-year-old winning the World Junior Championships with Oceania junior record  60.63m in Beijing, had thrown a 62.95m personal best in 2008. Although she was quite consistent in 2009, her best results at around 62 metres (62.89m pre-Berlin SB) did not suggest a medal in Berlin, but during the competition she was on another level getting better with every throw.

World leader Brown Trafton just barely made it to the final and finished 12th and last there. 38-year-old Romanian Nicoleta Grasu was another surprise leader in the competition for a while with a 65.20m season’s best before she was overtaken by Samuels and Cuban Yarelius Barrios, who threw 65.31m for the silver medal in the tight competition with the bronze going to the Romanian. Still there was time for a new world leader at the Chinese National Games where another surprise winner 30-year-old Li Yanfeng added more than two metres to her 2004 personal best 64.34m winning with a world leading 66.40m result before Song Aimin, who also set a personal best 65.44m for second place.

China continues as the best country in this event with 16 athletes in the world top 100. United States has 14 and Russia 11.

Women’s Hammer Throw

24-year-old Pole Anita Wlodarczyk only reached 70 metres for the first time last season, but in 2009 she was ready to step up a notch. Wlodarczyk hit a big personal best 75.05m in the very first competition of the season in March winning the European Cup Winter Throws and only lost once during the summer season in Turin in June to German reigning World champion Betty Heidler. The Pole was very consistent during the season progressing to 76.20m in May and 76.59m in June. She also made sure she was the number one favourite for Berlin hitting an impressive 77.20m national record in Cottbus in August in her last competition before the World Championships.

In Berlin her win wasn’t in doubt as she broke the World record early in the competition with a massive 77.96m throw for her eighth straight win. Wlodarczyk’s season ended prematurely when she sprained her ankle while celebrating the World record throw in Berlin.

Heidler didn’t do badly either. The 26-year-old German failed to get a medal in Beijing where she finished a disappointing ninth, but came to her home champs determined. Heidler had a good season before Berlin, but was a bit behind Wlodarczyk in results entering the World Championships with a 75.83m season’s best which won her the Universiade title. Heidler threw a 77.12m national record at the World Championships coming close to the gold and erasing her three-year-old previous German record 76.55m and got a World Championships silver medal as a reward.

Slovakian Martina Hrasnova was the number three in the world list with a 76.90m national record in May and she finished third in Berlin as well (74.79m). 25-year-old German Kathrin Klaas was fourth with a 74.23m personal best and has some curious stats with fellow German Heidler. These two have met 80 times in their careers since 2002 and every time Heidler has walked away as the winner.

The United States is the best country in this event with 12 athletes in the world top 100. Russia has eight and Belarus seven.

Women’s Javelin Throw

It wasn’t a big surprise that the women’s 2009 javelin season could not match the one from last season. The great duel in Beijing between Barbora Spotakova of the Czech Republic and Russian Mariya Abakumova and a subsequent 72.28m World record by Spotakova could not be matched easily. 28-year-old Beijing Olympics bronze medallist Christina Obergföll from Germany was the early world leader with a 68.59m season’s best winning the inaugural European Team Chamionships in Leiria, Portugal.

But like many others this season, Obergföll was not able to take this form to August and Berlin World Championships. The world record holder and reigning Olympic champion Spotakova also unleashed an impressive early season throw of 68.23m, a season’s best, but just couldn’t better that in the rest of the competitions in 2009 including the World Championships. The 23-year-old Abakumova, who was narrowly dropped to silver medal position in Beijing got the world leader in the Berlin qualification with 68.92m, but surprisingly was not able to follow that throw in the final.

Instead it was 37-year-old German Steffi Nerius, who used her opportunity well and nailed a 67.30m season’s best with her first throw in Berlin, enough for the gold medal, the first in worldwide championships for the seasoned athlete. Spotakova and Abakumova added World Championships medals to their tally with the Czech throwing 66.42m for the silver and the Russian 66.06m for the bronze.

China tops the countries with 13 athletes in the world top 100. Germany has ten and Cuba six.


World Lists [Shot Put][Discus Throw][Hammer Throw][Javelin Throw]
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