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If there was ever an athlete who could be described as the 'perennial
bridesmaid', it would have to be Oliver-Sven Buder, who won four silver
medals in the shot put at major international championships over a
ten-year period, but never once broke through for gold. Things weren't
always the case however, as young Oliver-Sven, representing East
Germany, had won the 1985 European Junior title at Cottbus with a
personal best throw of 19.34m. Buder steadily improved and had
increased his best performance to 20.22m by the end of 1989, but it
wasn't until 1990 that he started to make his mark in the senior ranks,
when he won the bronze medal at the European Indoor Championships at
Glasgow on 3 March, after warming up for that competition in an UK v
East Germany international match in the same city on 23 February (see photo above).
In the outdoor season, his form peaked at the most optimum time, just
before the European Championships in Split.
On 12 August, he reached 21
metres for the first time when he threw exactly that distance in
Berlin. On 18 August, he improved this personal best to 21.06m when he
finished a close second to Ulf Timmermann at the East German national
championships in Dresden. At the European Championships on 29 August,
Buder again finished behind Timmermann, winning the silver medal with
his fourth-round throw of 21.01m. In 1991, and now competing for the
newly-unified Germany, Buder finished 7th at the World Indoor
Championships at Seville on 8 March, and in the outdoor season, he won
the shot put title at the first whole of Germany national championships
for many years, with his season's best throw of 20.20m. The following
month he finished fourth at the World Championships in Tokyo with a best
throw of 20.10m. (Ron Casey)
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