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By the start of the 1994 season, Jan Zelezny had firmly positioned
himself as the best javelin thrower in the world. Not only was Jan the
reigning Olympic and World champion, but he was also the world record
holder, with a best distance over four metres further than the next man
on the all-time list, Britain's Steve Backley. The one major omission
from Zelezny's achievements was a European title, and he had an
opportunity to remedy that situation at Helsinki in August that year.
Despite his many successes, the European Championships had not been a
happy hunting ground for Zelezny, as he had failed to qualify for the
final at the previous two competitions in 1986 and 1990.
In the lead up
to the 1994 Championships, Zelezny further cemented his favouritism by
producing the three longest throws of the season to that time, two of
them longer than any other athlete had ever thrown. However, at
Helsinki, his bad luck continued, and he finished a disappointing third
behind Backley with a below par 82.58m. Not withstanding this loss,
Zelezny was still very much the favourite at the 1995 World
Championships in Gothenburg, although Raymond Hecht (Germany) had
produced the season's best throw of 92.60m when defeating Jan at Oslo on
21 July. At Gothenburg, Zelezny easily headed the qualifiers on 12
August with a massive throw of 90.12m, but in the final held the
following day, he (see photo above) initially struggled, and was only in
third place after round three with a best of 83.02m. Zelezny then went
into overdrive on his final three attempts, sealing the competition
with his fourth round throw of 88.92m, and then improving to 89.06m in
round five, and finally to 89.58m on his final throw to successfully
defend his world title from Backley, with Hecht well back in fourth. (Ron Casey)
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