Only 48 hours after improving his European lead with 87.36m at the German Championships, Johannes Vetter added nearly four metres to the world lead with his longest throw in two years at the Paavo Nurmi Games in Turku on Tuesday (11), a World Athletics Continental Tour Gold Meeting.
Vetter had effectively sealed the win in the first round of the competition with the German’s spear landing at a brilliant 91.49m, by far the longest throw in the world this year. He also displaced Olympic champion Thomas Rohler’s meeting record of 91.28m.
Vetter’s next three marks - 87.59m, 88.57m and 86.42m - all would have won the competition from his compatriot Andreas Hofmann who set a season’s best of 85.24m, a significant improvement on his yearly debut at the German Championships in Braunschweig where Hoffman was limited to a modest 77.35m. Both Vetter and Hoffman will be in action in Leverkusen on Sunday.
“I really did not expect this,” said Vetter. “We had the German Championships a few days ago and then I was in top shape and felt that I had an 87-88 meter throw in my body. I definitely have a few more meters in my body. The technique was not perfect today either, so I can still improve.”
As demonstrated by his performance at the German Championships, Vetter can still produce high calibre performances without spectators but the 2017 world champion thoroughly enjoyed throwing in front of an audience who were well-known for their love of the javelin.
“To hear the audience when you release the spear and then notice how they become more and more loud when the spear flies over 80, 85 meters - it is good,” said Vetter.
What a rocket! @jojo_javelin set a massive world lead of 91.49m in the javelin at the Paavo Nurmi Games in Turku this evening. pic.twitter.com/3aIcpA0jjI
— European Athletics (@EuroAthletics) August 11, 2020
While Vetter had two days in between competitions, Daniel Stahl had an even hastier turnaround after highlighting the Sollentuna GP on Monday (10) evening with a world lead of 71.37m.
Stahl left the arena thinking he had surpassed the 70 metre-line for the second time in as many days although his best throw of 70.20m was retroactively disqualified. But his only valid throw of the competition - 69.23m in round three - sufficed for victory ahead of Lithuania’s Andrius Gudzius (66.39m) and Slovenia’s Kristjan Ceh (66.07m).
'I just heard it [about the disqualification of his 70.20m throw] when I came to the mixed zone,' said Stahl. 'If the judge says it's a foul, it's a foul. I didn't feel it in the circle, that I was fouling, but I'm pretty happy that I showed the people that I could throw 70m with a tailwind.”
This guy knows how to put on a show
— Continental Tour Gold (@ContiTourGold) August 11, 2020
Daniel Stahl's 69.23m winning throw.#ContinentalTourGold pic.twitter.com/mdcB7rKxcP
The meeting concluded with two world leading performances for European athletes in the sprint hurdles. Reigning world indoor champion Andrew Pozzi maintained his unbeaten streak in 2020 by improving his world lead to 13.25 in the heat before another slick display in the final, stopping the clock at the second fastest time of his career of 13.17.
In the last event on the programme, European indoor champion Nadine Visser also eclipsed the world lead in the 100m hurdles with 12.68 in a high quality race in which the top four athletes - all European sprint hurdlers - broke the 12.9-barrier.
Italy’s Luminosa Bogliolo was second with 12.79 ahead of Hungary’s Luca Kozak who set a PB of 12.83. Annimari Korte was fourth in 12.89.
'I'm really happy. It's my first really big competition,” said Visser. “I've had quite a lot of time to train, of course, and it's going well, and I felt like I could do what I've shown in training, so now I'm looking forward to more competitions.'
Full results here.