London Diaries, Day 9: Upset of Games in Javelin, Keshorn Walcott Surprises for Gold, by Larry Eder

Keshorn Walcott, gold medalist, Olympic Javelin, photo by PhotoRun.net

All of nineteen, fresh off the World Junior Championships, Keshorn Walcott just shocked the javelin world with his gold medal win in London. Look at Keshorn closely,

as Trinidad celebrates, this young man will become the Bolt of the javelin, mark my word.

Long before Keshorn Walcott was a glimmer in his parent’s eyes, a Hungarian

javelin thrower, Miklos Nemeth, son of 1948 hammer gold winner Imre Nemeth,

surprised the 1976 javelin field with a world record first round throw. In 1976,

Miklos was considered a young man with potential, but someone who had never

just done it. In Montreal, Nemeth set a WR on his first throw, devastating the

field, and taking the gold.

Keshorn Walcott is the World Junior Champion in the javelin. He threw an 83.51m

throw in the first round, and 84.58m in second round. No one really responded until

Oleksandy Pyatnytsya dropped 84.51m in round three. Anti Ruuskanen dropped 84.12m

in round five to take the bronze.

Andreas Thorkildsen, the 2008 Olympic champion, was just not there. His throws

were short and he seemed to have trouble concentrating, hitting 82.63m for his

best.

Tero Pitamaki of Finland threw 82.80m for fifth, and he just was not there either.

Perhaps, Pitamaki and Thorkildsen needed some Iron Maiden or Metallica, but

their throwing was not with them.

Keshorn Walcott probably surprised himself. He also set a National record with his gold

medal. Watch this young man, he will be picking more medals in the future.

11 August 2012 – 19:20

Position	Bib	Athlete	Country	Mark	.
1	3052	Keshorn Walcott	TRI	84.58	(NR)
2	3143	Oleksandr Pyatnytsya	UKR	84.51	.
3	1727	Antti Ruuskanen	FIN	84.12	.
4	1525	VÃtezslav VeselÃ½	CZE	83.34	.
5	1726	Tero PitkÃ¤mÃ¤ki	FIN	82.80	.
6	2599	Andreas Thorkildsen	NOR	82.63	.
7	1982	SpirÃdon LebÃ©sis	GRE	81.91	.
8	1901	Tino HÃ¤ber	GER	81.21	.
9	2609	Stuart Farquhar	NZL	80.22	.
10	2219	Roderick Genki Dean	JPN	79.95	.
11	1725	Ari Mannio	FIN	78.60	.
12	2322	Julius Yego	KEN	77.15	.

Athlete	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th
Keshorn Walcott	83.51	84.58	X	80.64	X	–
Oleksandr Pyatnytsya	77.47	81.61	84.51	81.53	81.01	83.53
Antti Ruuskanen	79.60	81.09	81.60	81.97	84.12	79.88
VÃtezslav VeselÃ½	X	81.69	81.80	X	80.32	83.34
Tero PitkÃ¤mÃ¤ki	77.33	82.68	80.67	80.46	82.80	82.53
Andreas Thorkildsen	X	82.63	X	81.70	X	X
SpirÃdon LebÃ©sis	81.21	81.91	81.27	80.36	X	79.45
Tino HÃ¤ber	76.99	74.33	81.21	79.95	76.36	75.85
Stuart Farquhar	76.80	76.64	80.22
Roderick Genki Dean	X	79.95	X
Ari Mannio	78.60	77.71	X
Julius Yego	72.59	77.15	74.08

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Author

Larry Eder
Larry Eder has had a 52-year involvement in the sport of athletics. Larry has experienced the sport as an athlete, coach, magazine publisher, and now, journalist and blogger. His first article, on Don Bowden, America's first sub-4 minute miler, was published in RW in 1983. Larry has published several magazines on athletics, from American Athletics to the U.S. version of Spikes magazine. He currently manages the content and marketing development of the RunningNetwork, The Shoe Addicts, and RunBlogRun. Of RunBlogRun, his daily pilgrimage with the sport, Larry says: "I have to admit, I love traveling to far away meets, writing about the sport I love, and the athletes I respect, for my readers at runblogrun.com, the most of anything I have ever done, except, maybe running itself." Also does some updates for BBC Sports at key events, which he truly enjoys. Theme song: Greg Allman, " I'm no Angel."
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