World Athletics Championships 1997 / men's javelin

6th World Athletics Championships
discipline	Javelin throw
gender	Men
Attendees	40 athletes from 21 countries
venue	Athens
Competition location	Olympic Stadium
Competition phase	August 3rd (qualification) August 5th (final)
Medalist Marius Corbett ( RSA )   Steve Backley ( GBR )   Konstandinos Gatsioudis ( GRE )

The Athens Olympic Stadium in 2014

The men's javelin throw at the 1997 World Athletics Championships was held on August 3 and 5, 1997 in the Olympic Stadium in the Greek capital, Athens .

World champion was the South African Marius Corbett , which was quite a surprise. Like two years earlier , the British Olympic runner-up in 1996 and Olympic third in 1992 Steve Backley won the silver medal. Bronze went to the Greek Konstandinos Gatsioudis .

Existing records

World record	98.48 m	Jan Železný	Jena , Germany	May 25, 1996
World championship record	90.12 m		World Cup 1995 in Gothenburg , Sweden	August 11, 1995

The existing world championship record was not set and not improved at these world championships.

Three records were set.

• 1 continental record
  • 88.40 m - Marius Corbett , South Africa : African record , final on August 5th
• 2 national records
  • 74.04 m - Firas Al Mahamid , Syria : Qualification on August 3
  • 83.56 m - Emeterio González , Cuba : Final on August 5th

Legend

Brief overview of the meaning of the symbols - also commonly used in other publications:

-	waived
x	invalid
r	Competition not continued (retired)

qualification

Forty participants competed in two groups for the qualifying round. The qualification distance for direct entry into the final was 83.00 m. Three athletes exceeded this mark (highlighted in light blue). The final field was filled with the nine next placed athletes to twelve throwers (highlighted in light green). So finally 80.30 m had to be achieved for the final.

Group A

August 3, 1997, 8:10 a.m.

space	Surname	nation	Result (noun)	1st attempt (m)	2. attempt (m)	3rd attempt (m)
1	Boris Henry	Germany	83.42	81.80	79.34	83.42
2	Konstandinos Gatsioudis	Greece	83.32	83.32	-	-
3	Mick Hill	Great Britain	82.24	x	82.24	81.44
4th	Gregor Högler	Austria	81.54	79.54	78.44	81.54
5	Emeterio González	Cuba	80.88	x	x	80.88
6th	Marius Corbett	South Africa	80.72	76.32	80.72	75.10
7th	Sergei Makarov	Russia	80.62	x	80.62	80.26
8th	Raymond Hecht	Germany	79.38	78.88	79.38	x
9	Tom Pukstys	United States	78.64	77.46	78.64	76.58
10	Sami Saksio	Finland	76.20	75.42	76.20	x
11	Pål Arne Fagernes	Norway	75.66	75.66	x	x
12	Ēriks Rags	Latvia	75.06	71.66	73.06	75.06
13	Roald Bradstock	United States	74.92	74.92	71.88	71.70
14th	Nick Nieland	Great Britain	74.52	72.26	74.52	70.34
15th	Firas Al Mahamid	Syria	74.04 NO	74.04	70.90	r
16	Edgar Baumann	Paraguay	72.96	x	72.96	63.88
17th	Aleksandr Fingert	Israel	69.74	69.74	69.20	68.56
18th	Robert Teršek	Slovenia	69.08	69.08	66.36	r
19th	Vladimir Parfyonov	Uzbekistan	62.48	55.18	62.48	r
20th	Ponsianus Gnemen	Indonesia	57.12	57.12	56.32	r

Javelin throwers eliminated in qualification from group A:

• 

  Pål Arne Fagernes - 75.66 m

• 

  Ēriks Rags - 75.06 m

• 

  Edgar Baumann - 72.96 m

Group B

August 3, 1997, 10:00 a.m.

space	Surname	nation	Result (noun)	1st attempt (m)	2. attempt (m)	3rd attempt (m)
1	Jan Železný	Czech Republic	83.66	83.66	-	-
2	Steve Backley	Great Britain	81.40	81.40	x	x
3	Patrik Bodén	Sweden	80.88	80.88	76.26	77.42
4th	Aki Parviainen	Finland	80.76	x	79.82	80.76
5	Andrei Moruev	Russia	80.30	77.46	75.78	80.30
6th	Terry McHugh	Ireland	77.90	72.88	71.22	77.90
7th	Uladzimir Sassimovich	Belarus	77.38	75.24	76.28	77.38
8th	Seppo Räty	Finland	77.24	77.24	76.82	75.82
9	Andreas Linden	Germany	75.90	75.66	75.90	x
10	Gavin Lovegrove	New Zealand	75.62	75.62	x	x
11	Rajmund Kólko	Poland	74.98	74.76	74.98	72.16
12	Dimítrios Polimérou	Greece	74.94	74.94	x	x
13	Sergey Voynov	Uzbekistan	74.32	74.32	70.16	73.28
14th	Juan Gerardo de la Garza	Mexico	71.98	71.98	x	66.88
15th	Chu Ki-Young	South Korea	70.84	70.84	69.58	70.42
16	Bouna Diop	Senegal	69.66	65.06	69.66	r
17th	Pius Bazighe	Nigeria	69.64	69.64	65.14	68.92
18th	Ed Kaminski	United States	69.42	68.04	x	69.42
19th	Adrian Hatcher	Australia	69.18	x	x	69.18
20th	Rigoberto Calderón	Nicaragua	67.92	67.92	66.46	x

final

After two invalid throws, the actually dominant javelin thrower of these years Jan Železný did not reach the final of the best eight in ninth with 82.04 m

August 5, 1997, 6:40 p.m.

space	Surname	nation	Result (noun)	1st attempt (m)	2. attempt (m)	3rd attempt (m)	4th attempt (m)	5th attempt (m)	6th attempt (m)
1	Marius Corbett	South Africa	88.40	76.58	88.40	87.40	83.84	84.54	82.42
2	Steve Backley	Great Britain	86.60	82.94	84.74	x	x	83.20	86.60
3	Konstandinos Gatsioudis	Greece	86.64	81.70	86.64	83.98	x	x	x
4th	Mick Hill	Great Britain	86.54	84.84	86.54	x	83.64	x	83.04
5	Sergei Makarov	Russia	86.32	84.56	86.32	84.70	81.94	83.16	84.48
6th	Boris Henry	Germany	84.54	84.54	78.50	82.90	82.48	83.46	84.42
7th	Emeterio González	Cuba	83.56 NO	82.08	82.22	83.56	79.20	x	79.72
8th	Aki Parviainen	Finland	82.80	75.18	82.80	x	x	x	x
9	Jan Železný	Czech Republic	82.04	x	x	82.04	not in the final of the eight best throwers
10	Gregor Högler	Austria	81.56	81.00	80.18	81.56
11	Andrei Moruev	Russia	81.38	81.26	81.38	78.00
12	Patrik Bodén	Sweden	80.66	78.68	76.14	80.66

Video

• Men's Javelin Final - 1997 IAAF World Championships on youtube.com, accessed June 24, 2020

Web links

• 6th IAAF World Championships In Athletics , accessed June 9, 2020
• Men Javelin ThrowAthletics VI World Championship 1997 Athens (GRE) on todor66.com (English), accessed June 24, 2020
• Results in the IAAF Statistics Handbook for the 2019 World Cup in Doha, Men Javelin Throw, Athens 1997, p. 202f (PDF; 10.3 MB, English), accessed on June 24, 2020

References and comments

1. ↑ IAAF world records. Javelin men on rekorde-im-sport.de, accessed on June 24, 2020