Till Wöschler's winning throw of 82.52m takes him to equal fourth on the world junior all time list (© Getty Images)
One throw was all it took for Germany’s Till Wöschler to win his first World championships title and he wasted no time, hurling the javelin a massive 82.52m on his first attempt and could have taken the rest of the day off, not just the second and fifth attempts.
The World Junior leader coming into the Championships with 78.64m left with the fifth best of all times among juniors and a German National Junior Record, beating the 78.67m set by Mathias de Zordo set in 2007.
Ask him about the gigantic heave and he will tell you he has no recollection of what took place as he was so focused on what he had to do.
He is in good company led by Norway’s Andreas Thorkildson’s 83.87m and Russia’s Aleksandr Ivanov with 83.55m.
Wöschler’s throw was the only one over the 80m mark on Friday and had to be as his other attempts 76.05m, 74.99m and 76.08m would have left him out of the medals all together.
Three weeks ago at the German Trials in Mannheim, Wölscher who is some times coached by German World Championships medallist Boris Henry, was asked about records and while he thought he could challenge the German mark but had ruled out going after the World Junior Record.
Now he is in the neighbourhood, asked again, on Friday, he had a different response and thinks that given the right circumstances he could replace the Viking Thorkildson at the top.
Paul Reid for the IAAF
