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No sooner had Jan Zelezny staked his claim as the world's top javelin
thrower in 1987 and 1988, when he was beset by two setbacks. The first
was the emergence of Steve Backley (Great Britain) as a major force in
the javelin during 1989, and indeed, Zelezny and Backley would both
dominate the event throughout the whole of the next decade. Jan's
second setback was a fractured vertebra which restricted his competitive
opportunities during 1989, and forced him to enter hospital at the end
of the season for treatment. In addition, in early 1990, he lost his
world record, firstly to Patrik Boden (Sweden), and then to Backley, who
set a new mark of 89.58m on 2 July. Only twelve days later, at the
Bislett Games in Oslo, Zelezny not only defeated Backley, but set a new
world record of 89.66m (see photo above).
The anticipated
confrontation between Zelezny and Backley at the European Championships
later that year turned into somewhat of an anticlimax when Zelezny
failed to qualify for the final, allowing Backley to win the gold medal
in his absence. At the IAAF Congress held in Tokyo just prior to the
World Championships in August 1991, the new type of javelin that
Zelezny, Backley and others had been using was declared illegal, and all
records set using them were retrospectively deleted, which meant that
the world record reverted to Backley's 89.58m mark set in 1990. There
was a sensational occurrence in the javelin competition at the World
Championships when both Backley and Zelezny failed to qualify for the
final. However, it was a different story at the 1992 Olympic Games in
Barcelona on 8 August, when Zelezny sealed the competition with a 89.66m
throw in the first round, to win the gold medal that he had been
narrowly deprived of four years earlier. (Ron Casey)
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