Steve BACKLEY

 During the 1990's, the javelin competition at major international championships had largely been a two-man contest between Steve Backley and Jan Zelezny (Czech Republic). However, Zelezny missed the 1998 season due to injury, preventing the two old foes from renewing their rivalry at the European Championships in Budapest. Backley was in very good form prior to Budapest, winning at the AAA Championships (see photo above) in Birmingham on 26 July with a throw of 84.78m, and at the British Grand Prix at Sheffield on 2 August with a throw of 88.80m. At Budapest, on 21 August, Backley broke his own European Championships record in the qualifying round with a throw of 87.45m, and in the final held two days later he broke it again when he threw 89.72m to clinch his third consecutive European javelin title. Despite Zelezny's absence from competition, Backley had his hands full battling young South African Marius Corbett, who had surprisingly won the previous year's world title.

However, Backley seemed to have Corbett's measure at the World Cup in Johannesburg on 13 September, where Backley's winning throw of 88.71m was over 5 metres further than Corbett's fourth-place effort. They met again at the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur, where Backley was attempting to win his third consecutive title. However, Steve found himself upstaged by Corbett, who won the gold medal ahead of Backley who took the silver. Backley turned 30 in February 1999, although there seemed no indication that age was catching up with him when he retained his AAA title at Birmingham on 25 July. However, at the World Championships in Seville on 29 August, there was a bit of a changing of the guard when Zelezny finished third behind winner Aki Parviainen (Finland), while Backley finished a disappointing eighth. (Ron Casey)

After having dominated the javelin for the whole of the 1990's, it seemed that age had finally caught up with Steve Backley and old rival Jan Zelezny (Czech Republic) when they finished respectively eighth, and third, at the 1999 World Championships in Seville. However, the following year, both athletes were in good form prior to the Olympic Games in Sydney, with Backley winning his third consecutive AAA title at Birmingham in August to qualify for his third Olympic team. In the Olympic final on 23 September, Backley (aged 31) and Zelezny (aged 34) staged one of the best competitions between themselves in the course of their long careers. Zelezny took the lead in the first round with at throw of 89.41m, to which Backley (see photo above) responded in the second round with a throw of 89.85m to grab the lead. Zelezny threw 90.17m on his third attempt to retain his Olympic title, leaving Backley with the silver medal as he had done four years earlier.

Backley's 89.85m throw was his longest of the 2000 season, and he became the first Briton in an athletics event to win a medal at three separate Olympic Games. Backley was again in fine form early in the 2001 season, narrowly losing to Zelezny in an early season meet at Ostrava on 31 May, before winning at London on 22 July with a magnificent throw of 90.81m. This was Backley's longest throw since his (at that time) world record of 91.46m in January 1992. This performance made Backley a major contender for the gold medal at the World Championships in Edmonton, but in the qualifying round on 10 August, he could only manage 81.50m, and failed to advance to the final won by Zelezny. The following month he finished fourth behind Zelezny at the Grand Prix final in Melbourne. (Ron Casey)

By the start of the 2002 season, at age 33, Steve Backley had well and truly entered the veteran class as an international javelin thrower, but he showed no signs of slowing down, as he set about adding to his already impressive record at major championships. Backley claimed his first major victory at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester on 31 July, where his first throw of 86.81m (see photo above) easily won the gold medal, nearly 8 metres further than Canadian Scott Russell's best throw of 78.98m which earned him the silver. Although Backley dominated his Commonwealth opponents he did not find things quite so easy on the world stage. Steve's long-time nemesis Jan Zelezny (Czech Republic) performed well below his previous high standard in 2002, but in his place, the event was dominated that year by Sergey Makarov (Russia).

Prior to the European Championships in Munich, Makarov had met Backley on three occasions, and had beaten him each time by huge margins. At their last encounter before the European Championships, at Stockholm on 16 July, Makarov's winning throw of 87.73m was over 7 metres further than Backley's best effort of 80.55m, which was good enough for only sixth place. At Munich on 9 August, Makarov took the lead on his first throw with 88.05m, compared with Backley's 86.29m effort which placed him second. Steve improved to 86.37m in round three, before he unleashed a throw of 88.54m in round five to win the gold medal from Makarov who was unable to improve on his first round effort. Backley joined Soviet javelin thrower Janis Lusis as the only male to have won four consecutive European titles in the one event, although the pair were joined the next day by British hurdler Colin Jackson, when he also equalled this feat. (Ron Casey)