by Larry Eder
This is the fourth and final article by Stuart Weir from Stockholm. Stuart visited the city of Stockholm to cover the Stockholm DL, which was held on June 30, 2022.
Throws
I normally write more about track than field and more about jumps than throws, so here is me making amends with an assessment of throws in Stockholm. The first throwing event was the women’s shot put, which took place – sadly – two hours and 20 minutes before the 2-hour TV slot, so early in the program that not many spectators were in the arena.
The result was:
1 Chase Ealey (USA) 20.48
2 Sarah Mitton (Canada) 19.90
3 Auriol Dongmo (Portugal) 19.30
I was initially surprised that Chase Ealey had decided to do a return trip to Europe from the West coast of America between Eugene competitions until she reminded me that she is based in the UK. Incidentally, she trains at Loughborough – the UK equivalent of Eugene – a university town with a track and great training facilities but without the infrastructure to host a major event.
Chase told me that it was “really amazing that I had two good throws today, given that I had just arrived from the USA” adding “I felt very confident and comfortable in the circle. When I keep winning these competitions and throwing over 20m, my confidence growing.”
Anderson Peters won the javelin with 90.31. Surprisingly he commented: “I am not really in a great shape – I have suffered a back injury. It is still getting better but I hope to be back in really good shape soon. Getting the 90m throw was really good, I was very much motivated by Neeraj Chopra to get a 90m throw because he started the competition with a national record and that was pretty good for the start”.
He also commented on the camaraderie between the throwers: “The javelin throw community is really good and I am enjoying every competition. We always motivate each other. We want to make sure that everybody is doing ok. We want everybody to perform well. So doing competitions with those guys means a lot to me”. This seems to be distinctive of field events. I have heard Tamberi talk about the hours he spends with the other jumpers on the field. When there was a delay in the Olympic pole-vault final last year, rivals (and friends) Holly Bradshaw and Katie Nageotte just sat down and had a chat. There is a sense in which runners are competing against each other but field-eventers are competing on their own – in that moment – against the javelin, the bar, the sand, etc
Olympic champion, Neeraj Chopra, commented: “Today, I feel good and after the first throw, I thought I could throw even over the 90m today. But it is OK as I have more competitions coming this year. I am close to 90m now and I can throw it this year. Despite the fact that I did not win tonight, I feel very good because I did my best”.
Result
1 Anderson Peters (Grenada) 90.31
2 Neeraj Chopra (India) 89.94
3 Julian Weber (Germany) 89.08
Kristjan Čeh won the men’s discus against the home favorite, Daniel Stahl. The result was
1 Kristjan Čeh (Slovakia) 70.02
2 Mykolas Alekna (Lithuania) 69.81
3 Daniel Stahl (Sweden) 67.57
A delighted Čeh summed up his win: “It was going great today – good conditions, great crowd. A full stadium is always perfect. I stayed focused on my technique to get one in and I got two really far attempts so I am glad for it. I felt and realized that Daniel had a big support in the crowd but it did not disturb me. The first throw was really easy, then I wanted too much and pushed it and missed it but then it was going great”
Fine performances all round.
