2007 in review: Men’s Throws

The end of the year is traditionally a period to spend time with friends and family and reflect on the ups and downs of the year that has passed. So as we enter 2008, we invite you to reflect on what has been a successful year for our sport in Europe.

The next discipline in our '2007 in review' series, is traditionally one of Europe's best, and 2007 was no exception.

As usual, Europeans dominated the men's throwing events in the World this season and also took home nine out of a possible 12 medals from Osaka with the remaining three medals going to the USA. In the Shot Put Joachim Olsen (DEN) was closest to the World top with his European leading 21.61m Danish record, but was left with no result at all in the Osaka final. In the Discus Gerd Kanter (EST) and Virgiljus Alekna (LTU) continued their fight to be the top thrower in the World and although Alekna was 4-3 against Kanter during the season, Kanter did win the last three including World Championships and World Athletics Final, with Alekna competing with a leg injury.

In the Hammer it seems there is only one thrower able to win anything at the moment. 31-year-old Belarussian Ivan Tikhon grabbed another title in Osaka with a World leading 83.63m. In the Javelin, the top two exchanged places since the 2006 European Championships with Finland's Tero Pitkämäki winning in Osaka and Andreas Thorkildsen (NOR) picking up another World Championship silver.

Shot Put

Joachim Olsen's 21.61m throw in June was a big result, but the Dane's form did not continue for the World Championships in Osaka. 2006 European Championship and 2007 European Indoor Championship bronze medallist Joachim Olsen qualified easily in Osaka, but then failed to make a mark in the final.

Instead it was another European reaching for the medal behind two top Americans, Reese Hoffa and Adam Nelson, and once again Andrei Mikhnevich (BLR) made it to the podium, despite entering the World Championships with a season's best of only 20.65m, the 2003 World Champion and 2006 European Championship silver medallist produced an impressive 21.27m throw to take the bronze medal.

Other Europeans competed well in the Osaka final, with Rutger Smith (NED) filling fourth place (21.13m) and Tomasz Majewski (POL) fifth with a 20.87m throw, 10cm ahead of sixth place finisher, Miran Vodovnik (SLO) who set a season's best of 20.67m.

Discus

As usual, the Discus was all about the duel between Gerd Kanter and Virgiljus Alekna. The 35-year-old Lithuanian is the World's most decorated active thrower, with two Olympic and two World Championships gold's, however an injury prevented him from really challenging the Estonian in Osaka.

Alekna won the first four meets of the season between the two, throwing over 70m in three of them and 69.67m in the fourth, but then things got complicated in Osaka. The Discus master could only reach fourth place there with 28-year-old Kanter finally getting the gold after two silvers in both the World and European Championships. To add to the Estonian's best ever season, he maintained his position as World leading thrower for the second successive year, with a 72.02m throw in May.

Kanter was 3-4 against Alekna in 2007, but it was a major improvement because their all time competitions stand at 44-4 for the Lithuanian. Kanter reached the 70m mark in six competitions and Alekna in four. Young German Robert Harting was the surprise winner of the Osaka silver medal with Rutger Smith making up for his fourth place finish in the Shot Put, with a Discus bronze.

Hammer

Ivan Tikhon has been brilliant in major championships since his first taste of success in Paris 2003. However the triple World Champion has not won his gold medals easily, for example in Helsinki 2005, he had problems both in the qualification and the first rounds of the final, but in the end came up with the big throw needed for the win. 31-year-old Tikhon competed in 13 finals during the 2007 season, and won ten of them, but he was not the only favourite in Osaka.

Fellow Belarusian, Vadim Devyatovskiy, threw 82.94m in July, establishing himself as the World leading thrower going into Osaka. Tikhon had not competed since late June, and having only reached a rather uninspiring 77.75m in the qualification rounds, another success seemed far away. After five rounds in the final, hope was all but gone for the Belarusian Hammer specialist, who remained in sixth place having only narrowly qualified for the last three rounds as the eighth thrower with his third try. But with his final throw Tikhon did it again, reaching a season's best 83.63m mark to take his third successive World Championships, leaving Slovenian, Primoz Kozmus in second place with 82.29m and Libor Charfreitag (SVK) completing the all-european podium with his bronze 81.60m season's best.

Javelin

In the Javelin throw, Finland's Tero Pitkämäki was able to successfully leave the Helsinki 2005 disappointment behind. The Finn had approached the Helsinki final as favourite two years ago, but finished in fourth place after problems in the qualification rounds. However the 25-year-old showed not a hint of those problems in Osaka, where he sealed his victory in the second round with a huge 89m effort, then went on to throw 90.33m in round six.

Pitkämäki, who is a unique thrower (beating all active throwers in a career head-to-head competition) swapped places with Norwegian Olympic Champion Andreas Thorkildsen, who beat the Finn at the European Championships in Gothenburg last year. Thorkildsen was second in Osaka well behind Pitkämäki with an 88.61m best throw. Thorkildsen had also taken the silver from Helsinki 2005, but the reigning champion from that meet, Andrus Värnik (EST), was far away from his earlier form, only managing a 75.96m season's best in the Osaka qualifications.

2004 Olympic silver medallist Vadims Vasilevskis (LAT) was the second European to go over 90m this season with his 90.73m Latvian record. However the 25-year-old failed to make the World podium in Osaka, settling for fourth place like in the European Championships in Gothenburg last year. Pitkämäki, who was the favourite in Osaka, beat Thorkildsen 7-2 in 2007. A few curious facts showing the strength of the top two athletes in this event, is that Vasilevskis, who finished second behind Thorkildsen in Athens 2004 Olympics, has never beaten the Norwegian in 23 tries. Also World Championship finalist Magnus Arvidsson (SWE) is yet to beat Pitkämäki, and the two other Finns in the Osaka final, Tero Järvenpää and Teemu Wirkkala have both beaten Pitkämäki only once during their careers; Järvenpää in June 2004 and Wirkkala in September 2003.

Notable Statistics

Shot Put New entries for the European alltime list

21st 21.61 Joachim Olsen DEN

Shot Put
2007 head to head stats between best Europeans

Competitors	Scores
Joachim Olsen DEN – Andrei Mikhnevich BLR	1-1
Rutger Smith NED – Joachim Olsen DEN	2-1
Joachim Olsen DEN – Miran Vodovnik SLO	2-1
Andrei Mikhnevich BLR – Rutger Smith NED	3-1
Andrei Mikhnevich BLR – Tomasz Majewski POL	3-0
Rutger Smith NED – Ralf Bartels GER	4-0

Shot Put
Career head to head stats between best Europeans

Competitors	Scores
Joachim Olsen DEN – Andrei Mikhnevich BLR	7-7
Joachim Olsen DEN – Rutger Smith NED	11-5
Joachim Olsen DEN – Ralf Bartels GER	15-5
Andrei Mikhnevich BLR – Rutger Smith NED	7-5
Andrei Mikhnevich BLR – Tomasz Majewski POL	11-5
Ralf Bartels GER – Andrei Mikhnevich BLR	8-7

Discus New entries for the European alltime list

13th 69.97 Frantz Kruger FIN

Discus
2007 head to head stats between best Europeans

Competitors	Scores
Virgiljus Alekna LTU – Gerd Kanter EST	4-3
Gerd Kanter EST – Frantz Kruger FIN	4-1
Gerd Kanter EST – Mario Pestano ESP	4-1
Gerd Kanter EST – Robert Harting GER	4-0
Gerd Kanter EST – Piotr Malachowski POL	8-0
Virgiljus Alekna LTU – Frantz Kruger FIN	6-0
Virgiljus Alekna LTU – Mario Pestano ESP	7-0
Mario Pestano ESP – Frantz Kruger FIN	3-1

Discus
Career head to head stats between best Europeans

Competitors	Scores
Virgiljus Alekna LTU – Gerd Kanter EST	44-4
Gerd Kanter EST – Frantz Kruger FIN	28-11
Gerd Kanter EST – Mario Pestano ESP	28-9
Gerd Kanter EST – Rutger Smith NED	5-0
Gerd Kanter EST – Robert Harting GER	8-0
Gerd Kanter EST – Märt Israel EST	44-0
Virgiljus Alekna LTU – Frantz Kruger FIN	65-10
Virgiljus Alekna LTU – Mario Pestano ESP	36-2
Virgiljus Alekna LTU – Rutger Smith NED	6-1
Virgiljus Alekna LTU – Robert Harting GER	5-2
Mario Pestano ESP – Frantz Kruger FIN	17-15

Hammer New entries for the European alltime list

25th 82.30 Primoz Kozmus SLO

Hammer
2007 head to head stats between best Europeans

Competitors	Scores
Ivan Tikhon BLR – Vadim Devyatovskiy BLR	8-0
Ivan Tikhon BLR – Primoz Kozmus SLO	6-2
Ivan Tikhon BLR – Libor Charfreitag SVK	8-0
Ivan Tikhon BLR – Krisztian Pars HUN	7-1
Ivan Tikhon BLR – Szymon Ziolkowski POL	5-0
Primoz Kozmus SLO – Vadim Devyatovskiy BLR	3-2
Libor Charfreitag SVK – Vadim Devyatovskiy BLR	5-2
Krisztian Pars HUN – Vadim Devyatovskiy BLR	4-2
Primoz Kozmus SLO – Libor Charfreitag SVK	4-3
Primoz Kozmus SLO – Krisztian Pars HUN	6-4

Hammer
Career head to head stats between best Europeans

Competitor	Scores
Ivan Tikhon BLR – Vadim Devyatovskiy BLR	29-5
Ivan Tikhon BLR – Primoz Kozmus SLO	18-2
Ivan Tikhon BLR – Libor Charfreitag SVK	23-2
Ivan Tikhon BLR – Krisztian Pars HUN	18-5
Ivan Tikhon BLR – Szymon Ziolkowski POL	14-4
Ivan Tikhon BLR – Markus Esser	11-0
Vadim Devyatovskiy BLR – Primoz Kozmus SLO	10-5
Vadim Devyatovskiy BLR – Libor Charfreitag SVK	19-6
Krisztian Pars HUN – Vadim Devyatovskiy BLR	12-11
Primoz Kozmus SLO – Libor Charfreitag SVK	13-12
Krisztian Pars HUN – Primoz Kozmus SLO	19-14

Javelin New entries for the European alltime list

9th place 90.73 Vadims Vasilevskis (LAT)

Javelin
2007 head to head stats between best Europeans

Competitor	Scores
Tero Pitkämäki – Vadims Vasilevskis LAT	4-0
Tero Pitkämäki – Andreas Thorkildsen NOR	7-2
Tero Pitkämäki – Sergey Makarov RUS	3-0
Tero Pitkämäki – Aleksandr Ivanov RUS	8-0
Tero Pitkämäki – Magnus Arvidsson SWE	10-0
Andreas Thorkildsen NOR – Vadims Vasilevskis LAT	5-0
Vadims Vasilevskis LAT – Sergey Makarov RUS	5-1
Aleksandr Ivanov RUS – Vadims Vasilevskis LAT	3-1
Andreas Thorkildsen NOR – Sergey Makarov RUS	5-0
Andreas Thorkildsen NOR – Aleksandr Ivanov RUS	9-0

Javelin
Career head to head stats between best Europeans

Competitor	Score
Tero Pitkämäki FIN – Vadims Vasilevskis LAT	18-2
Tero Pitkämäki FIN – Andreas Thorkildsen NOR	19-14
Tero Pitkämäki FIN – Sergey Makarov RUS	12-5
Tero Pitkämäki FIN – Aleksandr Ivanov RUS	21-3
Tero Pitkämäki FIN – Magnus Arvidsson SWE	14-0
Tero Pitkämäki FIN – Tero Järvenpää FIN	20-1
Tero Pitkämäki FIN – Teemu Wirkkala FIN	18-1
Andreas Thorkildsen NOR – Vadims Vasilevskis LAT	23-0
Vadims Vasilevskis LAT – Sergey Makarov RUS	8-7
Aleksandr Ivanov RUS – Vadims Vasilevskis LAT	12-6
Vadims Vasilevskis LAT – Magnus Arvidsson SWE	4-3
Sergey Makarov RUS – Andreas Thorkildsen NOR	16-12
Andreas Thorkildsen NOR – Aleksandr Ivanov RUS	29-13
Andreas Thorkildsen NOR – Magnus Arvidsson SWE	12-2
Andreas Thorkildsen NOR – Tero Järvenpää FIN	10-0