Sunette Viljoen

Sunette Viljoen
Sunette Viljoen in Zurich 2010
Full name	Sunette Stella Viljoen
nation	South Africa
birthday	6th October 1983 (age 36)
place of birth	Johannesburg , South Africa
size	168 cm
Weight	64 kg
Career
discipline	Javelin throw
Best performance	69.35 m (June 9, 2012 in New York City )
Trainer	Terseus Liebenberg
status	active
Medal table
Olympic games 0 × 1 × 0 × World championships 0 × 1 × 1 × Commonwealth Games 2 × 1 × 1 × Africa Games 0 × 0 × 3 × African Championships 5 × 1 × 0 × Summer Universiade 2 × 0 × 0 ×
Olympic games silver Rio de Janeiro 2016 64.92 m  World championships silver Daegu 2011 68.38 m bronze Beijing 2015 65.79 m  Commonwealth Games gold Melbourne 2006 60.72 m gold New Delhi 2010 62.34 m silver Glasgow 2014 63.19 m bronze Gold Coast 2018 62.08 m  Africa Games bronze Abuja 2003 51.68 m bronze Algiers 2007 54.46 m bronze Rabat 2019 53.44 m  African Championships gold Brazzaville 2004 60.13 m silver Bambous 2006 55.64 m gold Addis Ababa 2008 55.17 m gold Nairobi 2010 63.33 m gold Marrakech 2014 65.32 m gold Durban 2016 64.08 m  Universiade gold Belgrade 2009 62.52 m gold Shenzhen 2011 66.47 m
last change: January 9, 2020

Sunette Stella Viljoen (born October 6, 1983 in Johannesburg ) is a South African javelin thrower and is one of the most successful athletes in her country. Among other things, she won five African championship titles, as well as two competitions each of the Commonwealth Games and the Summer Universiade in a row.

Athletic career

Sunette Viljoen gained her first international experience at the 2003 World Championships in Paris , where she was eliminated from the qualification with a width of 56.78 m. Then she won the bronze medal at the African Games in Abuja with 51.68 m behind the Tunisian Aïda Sellam and Lindy Leveau from the Seychelles. This was followed by victory at the Afro-Asian Games in Hyderabad with 55.49 m. The following year she won the African Championships in Brazzaville with a new championship record of 60.13 m and qualified for the Olympic Games in Athens for the first time when she was only 20 years old , but did not reach a 35th place in the qualifying round with 54.45 m out. In 2005 she took part in the Summer Universiade in Izmir and reached twelfth place with a width of 51.09 m. In 2006 she won the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne with a new player record of 60.72 m and only had to admit defeat to her compatriot Justine Robbeson at the African Championships in Bambous with 55.64 m . The following year she won the bronze medal again behind Robbeson and Leveau at the Africa Games in Algiers with 54.46 m. Then she was at the Student World Games in Bangkok with 58.39 m fifth.

In 2008 she won the African Championships in Addis Ababa again with 55.17 m and thus qualified for the Olympic Games in Beijing , where she was eliminated again in the preliminary round with 55.58 m . The following year she won the Summer Universiade in Belgrade with a throw of 62.52 m and was eliminated from the qualification at the World Championships in Berlin with 56.83 m. In 2010 she improved her own championship record to 63.33 m at the African Championships in Nairobi and successfully defended her title. She did the same at the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi , where she improved the player record to 62.34 m. In the following year she set a new African record with 66.47 m at the Student World Games in Shenzhen , which she screwed shortly afterwards to 68.38 m at the World Championships in Daegu, South Korea, and thus surprisingly the bronze medal behind the Russian Marija Abakumova and in the field of top-class players Barbora Špotáková from the Czech Republic won. The Russian woman was subsequently stripped of the gold medal for a doping offense, and Viljoen was awarded the silver medal. In 2012 she started as the world's best of the year at the Olympic Games in London , but came away empty-handed in the final and took the thankless fourth place with a throw on 64.53 m. Before that, she set the current African record with 69.35 m at the Diamond League meeting in New York and is sixth on the all-time world best list (as of 2019).

In 2013 she finished sixth at the World Championships in Moscow with 63.58 m and the following year she won the silver medal behind Australian Kimberley Mickle at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow with a width of 63.19 m . She then won the African Championships in Marrakech with a new championship record of 65.32 m. In addition, she was second in the Athletics Continental Cup there with 63.76 m. In 2015 she took part again in the World Championships in Beijing, where she won the bronze medal behind the Germans Katharina Molitor and Lü Huihui from China in the final with a throw at 65.79 m . In 2016, Viljoen secured her fifth gold medal at the African Championships in Durban with 64.08 m and then won the silver medal behind the Croatian Sara Kolak at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro with 64.92 m .

In 2018 she again took part in the Commonwealth Games in the Australian Gold Coast , where she won the bronze medal with 62.08 m behind the two Australians Kathryn Mitchell and Kelsey-Lee Barber . The following year she won the bronze medal at the African Games in Rabat with 53.44 m behind the Nigerian Kelechi Nwanaga and her compatriot Jo-Ane van Dyk . At the end of September she also took part in the World Championships in Doha again and was eliminated there with 60.10 m in qualification .

In 2003 and 2004, 2006 as well as from 2009 to 2017 and 2019 , Viljoen was South African champion in javelin throw.

Personal

Viljoen works as a sports teacher in Rustenburg and also excelled as a cricket player between 2000 and 2002 . During this period, she completed 17 one-day games for South Africa. She lives openly gay in South Africa.

Web links

Commons : Sunette Viljoen  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Sunette Viljoen in the database of World Athletics (English)
• Sunette Viljoen in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Steve Landells: First impressions - Sunette Viljoen ( English ) IAAF. October 3, 2016. Retrieved May 16, 2019.
• Steve Landells: Advice to my younger self: Sunette Viljoen ( English ) IAAF. July 24, 2019. Accessed January 9, 2020.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Jon Mulkeen: Viljoen wins fourth African title, more gold for Mokoena and Chepkirui ( English ) IAAF. August 13, 2014. Retrieved May 17, 2019.
2. ↑ Wesley Botton: Aprot takes African 10,000m title ( English ) IAAF. June 25, 2016. Retrieved May 17, 2019.
3. ↑ Times Live: Sunette at sharp end