The Men's Javelin Throw

Javelin throw

The javelin throw is a track and field athletics throwing event where the object to be thrown is the javelin, a spear approximately 2.5 metres in length. Javelin is an event of both the men's decathlon and the women's heptathlon...

 event at the 2004 Summer Olympics

2004 Summer Olympics

The 2004 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad, was a premier international multi-sport event held in Athens, Greece from August 13 to August 29, 2004 with the motto Welcome Home. 10,625 athletes competed, some 600 more than expected, accompanied by 5,501 team...

 as part of the athletics program

Athletics at the 2004 Summer Olympics

At the 2004 Summer Olympics, the athletics events were held at the Athens Olympic Stadium from August 18 to August 29, except for the marathons , the race walks , and the shot put...

 was held at the Athens Olympic Stadium, Greece. The qualifying round was held on August 26, 2004, and the final on August 28, 2004 with the qualification mark set at 81.00 metres.

American Breaux Greer

Breaux Greer

Breaux Greer is a male American javelin thrower. He is an eight time American Champion and American record holder for the javelin with a throw of 91.29 meters, achieved on June 21, 2007 during the USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Indianapolis...

 led the qualifying with 87.25 metres (286-3) but injured his sensitive knee in the process and would finish last in the final. The favorites were Jan Železný

Jan Železný

Jan Železný is a Czech javelin thrower, world and Olympic champion and world record holder in javelin throw...

 and Steve Backley

Steve Backley

Stephen James Backley OBE is a retired British athlete who was formerly the world record holder for javelin throwing...

 again, along with Russian Sergey Makarov, the 2003 World Champion. Železný and Backley had had great careers but were now past their prime, Železný finishing ninth and Backley fourth, never in the medals.

Makarov also did not have his best day, only able to get the bronze medal. In round two, Norway’s Andreas Thorkildsen

Andreas Thorkildsen

Andreas Thorkildsen is a Norwegian javelin thrower, born in Kristiansand. He is the first male javelin thrower in history to be European champion, World champion and Olympic champion...

 took the lead with 86.50 metres (283-9½) and that would be good enough for the gold medal. Nobody else could get over 85 metres. He had no major international credentials, although in 2001 he had set the world junior record with 83.87 metres (275-2). Track & Field News

Track & Field News

Track & Field News is a magazine founded in 1948 by brothers Bert Nelson & Cordner Nelson, focused on the world of track and field.The magazine provides coverage of athletics in the U.S.A. from the high school to national level as well as covering the sport on an international bases. The magazine...

 quoted Thorkildsen as saying, “If you had said the words ‘Olympic champion’ to me yesterday, I wouldn’t have believed you. But now it sounds great.”

Medalists

Schedule

• All times are Eastern European Time
  Eastern European Time
  Eastern European Time is one of the names of UTC+02:00 time zone, 2 hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time. It is used in some European countries that also use Eastern European Summer Time as a summer daylight saving time.- Usage :...
  
   (UTC+2
  UTC+2
  UTC+02 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +02. In ISO 8601 the associated time would be written as . This time is used in:-Central Africa Time:*Botswana*Burundi*Democratic Republic of the Congo...
  
  )

  Qualification Round
  Group A	Group B
  26.08.2004 – 20:05h	26.08.2004 – 21:50h
  Final Round
  28.08.2004 – 20:40h

Abbreviations

Q	automatic qualification
q	qualification by rank
DNS	did not start
NM	no mark
OR	olympic record
WR	world record
AR	area record
NR	national record
PB	personal best
SB	season best

Records

Standing records prior to the 2004 Summer Olympics
World Record Javelin throw The javelin throw is a track and field athletics throwing event where the object to be thrown is the javelin, a spear approximately 2.5 metres in length. Javelin is an event of both the men's decathlon and the women's heptathlon...		98.48 m	May 25, 1996	Jena Jena Jena is a university city in central Germany on the river Saale. It has a population of approx. 103,000 and is the second largest city in the federal state of Thuringia, after Erfurt.-History:Jena was first mentioned in an 1182 document... , Germany Germany Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
Olympic Record		90.17 m	September 23, 2000	Sydney, Australia

Group A

Rank	Athlete	Attempts			Distance	Note
		1	2	3
1		87.25	—	—	87.25 m	Q
2		86.08	—	—	86.08 m	Q
3		83.64	—	—	83.64 m	Q
4		83.25	—	—	83.25 m	Q
5		81.06	—	—	81.06 m	Q
6		80.60	80.68	80.39	80.68 m	q
7		79.95	74.69	79.56	79.95 m
8		79.77	X	78.50	79.77 m
9		79.27	X	X	79.27 m
10		69.64	74.34	77.43	77.43 m
11		74.11	72.42	77.34	77.34 m
12		76.45	75.36	75.75	76.45 m
13		73.45	73.95	72.05	73.95 m
14		X	73.46	X	73.46 m
15		72.26	68.72	72.14	72.26 m
16		68.70	71.86	69.58	71.86 m
17		68.21	71.74	67.73	71.74 m

Group B

Rank	Athlete	Attempts			Distance	Note
		1	2	3
1		84.43	—	—	84.43 m	Q / PB
2		82.18	—	—	82.18 m	Q
3		82.04	—	—	82.04 m	Q
4		81.74	—	—	81.74 m	Q
5		81.18	—	—	81.18 m	Q
6		77.92	80.84	X	80.84 m	q
7		80.07	77.53	79.07	80.07 m
8		79.73	X	79.94	79.94 m
9		77.25	77.60	78.59	78.59 m
10		77.21	78.53	75.57	78.53 m
11		75.18	73.76	78.41	78.41 m
12		74.68	74.08	72.71	74.68 m
13		74.24	73.07	74.63	74.63 m
14		68.86	71.31	72.79	72.79 m
15		63.01	67.60	72.70	72.70 m
16		66.73	X	71.43	71.43 m
—		—	—	—	DNS

Final Ranking

Rank	Athlete	Distance	Group
1		87.25 m	A
2		86.08 m	A
3		84.43 m	B
4		83.64 m	A
5		83.25 m	A
6		82.18 m	B
7		82.04 m	B
8		81.74 m	B
9		81.18 m	B
10		81.06 m	A
11		80.84 m	B
12		80.68 m	A
13		80.07 m	B
14		79.95 m	A
15		79.94 m	B
16		79.77 m	A
17		79.27 m	A
18		78.59 m	B
19		78.53 m	B
20		78.41 m	B
21		77.43 m	A
22		77.34 m	A
23		76.45 m	A
24		74.68 m	B
25		74.63 m	B
26		73.95 m	A
27		73.46 m	A
28		72.79 m	B
29		72.70 m	B
30		72.26 m	A
31		71.86 m	A
32		71.74 m	A
33		71.43 m	B
—		DNS	B

Final

Rank	Athlete	Attempts						Distance	Note
		1	2	3	4	5	6
		84.82	86.50	80.96	X	—	—	86.50 m	PB
		84.95	83.95	X	X	79.07	80.91	84.95 m	PB
		84.84	X	77.59	78.00	82.51	84.32	84.84 m
4		79.62	81.48	84.13	83.02	X	81.62	84.13 m	SB
5		83.31	82.76	81.36	80.28	78.07	79.99	83.31 m
6		83.25	82.72	X	X	76.41	—	83.25 m
7		77.13	83.14	81.69	X	X	78.63	83.14 m
8		80.38	83.01	X	X	81.19	X	83.01 m
9		76.77	79.98	80.59				80.59 m
10		X	80.28	78.73				80.28 m
11		76.20	79.43	76.23				79.43 m
12		74.36	X	X				74.36 m

See also

• 2002 Men's European Championships Javelin Throw (Munich)
  2002 European Championships in Athletics - Men's Javelin
  These are the official results of the Men's javelin throw event at the 2002 European Championships in Munich, Germany. There were a total number of 21 participating athletes...
  
  
• 2003 Men's World Championships Javelin Throw (Paris)
• 2004 Javelin Throw Year Ranking
• 2005 Men's World Championships Javelin Throw (Helsinki)
• 2006 Men's European Championships Javelin Throw (Gothenburg)