Atheltics Weekly

IAAF WORLD CHAMPS 2017
FAJDEK GOES FOR A HAT-TRICK
HAMMER
POLAND’S Pawel Fajdek is
aiming to complete the treble in
London.
The world champion in 2013
and 2015 will be trying to win
his third consecutive world
crown.
As a man who holds the top
eight leading marks in the world
so far this year, too, who would
bet against him?
But the 28-year-old is not
invincible.
At the Rio Olympics he
bombed out in qualifying. The
bespectacled thrower had a
nightmare at the Olympics in
London five years ago as well,
while he has not enjoyed an
entirely unbeaten streak this
summer either.
If Fajdek fails, Poland is still
THE Germans have owned
the men’s javelin in 2017 and
it would be a turn up if they
don’t win gold in London. Such
is their dominance this year,
a sweep of the medals could
even be on the cards.
in with a great chance of gold,
though. The world No.2 this
year is Wojciech Nowicki – and
the Polish duo are the only
men to break the 80m barrier
in 2017.
At the Diamond League in
Doha in May, Thomas Rohler
threw 93.90m – the best mark
for 20 years and a performance
beaten only by one man in
history, Jan Zelezny.
Then, in Lucerne in July,
Rohler was overtaken on the
all-time rankings by another
German, Johannes Vetter, as he
unleashed a tremendous series
of four throws over 90 metres
with a best of 94.44m.
German javelin dominance
this summer has been one of
the talking points of the track
and field season and both men
are still young and still have
plenty of promise and potential.
So will Vetter get the better
of Rohler in London?
Well, Rohler has the better
championship pedigree as the
25-year-old won the Olympic
title in Rio last year. Vetter,
The big challenger to the
Poles is Dilshod Nazarov. The
35-year-old won silver in Beijing
two years ago and last year in
Rio he won Tajikistan’s first-ever
Olympic gold.
meanwhile, was fourth in Rio
and seventh at the last World
Championships in Beijing.
Incredibly, another German
sits in third place in the world
rankings this year, too. Andreas
Hoffman has a best of 88.79m
in 2017, just ahead of other
medal contenders like Jakub
Event statistics
World record: 86.74m Yuriy Sedykh
(URS)
Champs record: 83.63m Ivan
Tikhov (BLR)
Defending champion: Pawel Fajdek
(POL)
British interest: Chris Bennett,
Nick Miller
AW prediction: 1 Fajdek (POL);
2 Nowicki (POL); 3 Nazarov (TJK)
History: Four athletes have won
double titles – Fajdek, Sergey
Litvinov, Andrey Abduvaliyev and
Ivan Tikhov. The latter won three
originally but lost one gold due to
a retrospective drugs test.
Elsewhere, Valeriy Pronkin
of Russia will compete under
the neutral flag and will be a
danger, while Great Britain
is represented by British
champion and national recordholder
Nick Miller, plus the
improving Chris Bennett. JH
GERMANS WANT CLEAN MEDAL SWEEP
JAVELIN
Thomas Rohler:
93.90m in May
Golden battle: Pawel Fajdek (left)
and Wojciech Nowicki of Poland
Johannes
Vetter:
94.44m
in July
Event statistics
World record: 98.48m Jan Zelezny
(CZE)
Champs record: 92.80m Jan
Zelezny (CZE)
Defending champion: Julius Yego
(KEN)
British interest: None
AW prediction: 1 Rohler (GER);
2 Vetter (GER); 3 Pitkamaki (FIN)
History: World record-holder Jan
Zelezny won five medals, taking gold
on three occasions. He made seven
finals in eight appearances.
Vadlejch of the Czech Republic
and Tero Pitkämäki of Finland.
The latter won the world title
back in 2007 so it would be
some achievement if he took
gold again a decade later.
Since the retirement of
Steve Backley, this event
has struggled in the UK and
unfortunately there is no GB
representative. JH
3 8 A T H L E T I C S W E E K L Y