Nerius claims first gold for Germany at IAAF championships
Steffi Nerius of Germany won the women’s javelin gold here at the world athletics championships on Tuesday to end her frustrating run of three successive world bronzes.
The 37-year-old threw a season’s best mark of 67.30 metres to beat defending and Olympic champion Barbora Spotakova of the Czech Republic (66.42m) while Maria Abakumova of Russia took the bronze (66.06m).
Nerius, who took Olympic silver in 2004 and bronze from the 2003, 2005 and 2007 world championships, set her marker out from the start with what turned out to be the winning effort.
Spotakova had admitted to feeling like a “dead person” in qualifying on Sunday, but she found enough spark here to fight her way from the bronze medal position into silver by the third round.
However, she never threatened to better that or Nerius' mark in the final three rounds. When her final effort of 59.74m flashed up on the scoreboard, it was greeted with a cacophony of cheers from the largely 50,000 German spectators.
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The 37-year-old threw a season’s best mark of 67.30 metres to beat defending and Olympic champion Barbora Spotakova of the Czech Republic (66.42m) while Maria Abakumova of Russia took the bronze (66.06m).
Nerius, who took Olympic silver in 2004 and bronze from the 2003, 2005 and 2007 world championships, set her marker out from the start with what turned out to be the winning effort.
Spotakova had admitted to feeling like a “dead person” in qualifying on Sunday, but she found enough spark here to fight her way from the bronze medal position into silver by the third round.
However, she never threatened to better that or Nerius' mark in the final three rounds. When her final effort of 59.74m flashed up on the scoreboard, it was greeted with a cacophony of cheers from the largely 50,000 German spectators.
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