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There seems little doubt that Jan Zelezny can confidently claim to be
the greatest javelin thrower of all time. Over his long career he
consistently dominated the season's rankings, as well as building an
impressive competitive record in major championships and setting a
number of world records. Zelezny's first major international
competition was the 1983 European Junior Championships, where he
finished sixth in the javelin. Two years later, in 1985, Zelezny's
throw of 84.68m on 18 May was the best performance by a junior athlete
that year. Despite this performance, at the European Junior
Championships in August he was only able to manage fourth place. Jan
suffered further disappointment in his first major competition in the
senior ranks, failing to qualify for the final at the 1986 European
Championships in Stuttgart.
It was in the following year that Zelezny
began to stamp his authority on the event at an international level,
when he established a new world record of 87.66m at an international
meet in Nitra on 31 May 1987, only two weeks before his twenty-first
birthday. In the javelin final at the World Championships in Rome on 30
August, Zelezny assumed the lead in round two with at throw of 82.20m,
but he failed to improve upon this during the remainder of the
competition, although it was still sufficient to win him the bronze
medal (see photo above). At the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul,
Zelezny threw an Olympic record of 85.90m in the qualifying round, over
four metres further than his nearest rival.
In the final on 25
September, Zelezny took the lead in round four, and then lengthened his
lead in round six with a throw of 84.12m. However, Tapio Korjus
(Finland) came through with a final throw of 84.28m, to just pip Jan for
the gold medal. (Ron Casey)
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