Dhe javelin Olympian Julian Weber narrowly missed the first 90-meter throw of his career. The 27-year-old from Mainz improved on Whit Monday in Hengelo, the Netherlands, to 89.54 m and improved his personal best by 1.25 m. Only world champion Anderson Peters from Grenada was better.
Meanwhile, Olympic champion Malaika Mihambo (LG Kurpfalz) remains undefeated in the long jump this season. The 28-year-old prevailed in Hengelo with 6.65 m, but again remained well below the seven-meter mark, which she had only surpassed at the start of the season in Birmingham (7.09). “It was a tough competition,” said Mihambo, who won ahead of Quanesha Burks (USA/6.53).
“Aim for the 90 meters”
More valuable, however, was Weber’s achievement. So far, five German javelin throwers have surpassed the 90-meter mark, with the German record holder Johannes Vetter (97.76), Olympic champion Thomas Röhler and Andreas Hofmann three of them are still active.
Weber clearly leads the German year’s best list ahead of Hofmann (87.32), who finished fifth on Monday with 81.00 m. Internationally, Weber is third behind Peters (93.07) and the Czech Jakub Vadlejch (90.88).
“I’m definitely aiming for the 90 meters, that’s my goal. But I pay less attention to placement or distance and more to how I feel about the throws,” Weber had recently said on lichtathletik.de: “I just want to throw really long throws this year, and depending on they will be go far, at least further than before.”
