Javelin thrower Jakub Vadlejch didn’t get the Golden Boot he dreamed of. This time he was away from the ninety yards he crossed for the first time in his career earlier this season. Just like last year, he finished fourth in the Czech’s biggest encounter, but at least this time he left the stadium in good health.
A year ago, immediately after the competition, he thought the matter was small, but the opposite happened. “Last year after Tretra, I left the stadium with a torn groin, so… Now I’m probably in the best health I’ve had in years. I knocked, that’s great,” he said tapping his teeth. as a sign of a positive finding.
Otherwise, it was mainly a struggle for him today. From the first attempt, he struggled with start-up and technique. “Sometimes it’s like that, it’s a javelin. If there is no sense of the javelin, you can’t fight with the technique change. During the race you try to do something, but if there is no feeling, it is like deafening the door. You hit, hit, and nothing out of it,” he said.
He gradually improved until the fourth series. “The first three runs didn’t work out for me at all, I gradually started to improve. I wanted to add a few more meters, but I couldn’t do it anymore,” he admits.
The javelin is a highly technical discipline where detail counts for many yards. “Ninety meters becomes eighty very easily and vice versa,” said Vadlejch. Even world champion Anderson Peters of Grenada this time did not reach more than 90 meters, 87.88 from the first series was enough for him to win. “You can see that he struggles with that too, he even has a pitch under 80 metres,” the Olympic silver medalist said in his remarks.
Along with another Czech javelin hero from Tokyo, Vítězslav Vesel, they rode down the track in a convertible during the opening ceremony. “That’s good, good,” he praised.
Then he threw under a full section of the stands, where the passionate Italian high pitcher Gianmarco Tamberi entertained the crowd at the same time as the javelin competition. “He does a lot of things. He can really excite people and we took that from him,” Vadlejch praised the Olympic champion’s performance. “The fans made our show. That they are here and they are close… I’m so happy they’re back,” added the Czech’s current best javelin, who will show himself to the fans at the Josef Odložil Memorial in Prague in six days.
“Certified bacon geek. Evil social media fanatic. Music practitioner. Communicator.”
