Javelin Throw, Men

Prior to 2012 it was not even certain if there were any javelin throwers in Trinidad & Tobago. It was simply not an event at which that nation had produced any major throwers. But earlier in the year 19-year-old Keshorn Walcott had won the Central American & Caribbean Championships, throwing a world-class 82.83. Two weeks later he surprised again by winning the 2012 World Junior title. Prior to 2012, his PR had been only 75.77.

But he was not considered one of the medal favorites in London, and as Bob Hersh wrote in Track & Field News, “Nor should he have been.” The qualifying was led by the favorite, Czech Vítězslav Veselý, with the two-time defending champion, Norwegian Andreas Thorkildsen, qualifying comfortably, along with former World Champion Tero Pitkämäki of Finland.

In the final Walcott opened with 83.51 which led after the first round, nobody else surpassing 80 metres. He improved that in round two with 84.58 to continue in the lead, although Pitkämäki moved into second with 82.68 and Thorkildsen moved into third with 82.63, as Veselý struggled back in fifth with 81.69. The third round saw another surprise as Ukrainian Oleksandr P’iatnytsia moved into second with 84.51. And that settled the gold and silver medals, as nobody would surpass Walcott nor P’iatnytsia’s marks. In the final rounds, Finn Antti Ruuskanen threw 84.12 to move onto the podium for bronze. Veselý improved in his final round with 83.34 but it was only good enough for fourth. Thorkildsen saw his attempt to three-peat fail as he finished sixth.

Walcott became only the second Olympic champion from Trinidad & Tobago, after Hasely Crawford, who won the 1976 100 metres. He also became the first person to win an Olympic and World Junior title in the same year in athletics. His victory was also only the second time that the javelin was not won by a European, after Cy Young (USA) had won in 1952. It did not go unrewarded. Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar announced a national holiday in Trinidad & Tobago. He was given £100,000, a luxury home, 20,000 acres of land, and best of all, a lighthouse.

That was how the event and the results seemed to have ended. In 2015, however, the IOC began re-testing samples from the 2008 Beijing and 2012 London Olympics, using newer, more advanced testing techniques, in an effort to find those who had used performance enhancing drugs (PEDs), but in whom it could not be detected at the time of those Olympics. This was one of the many events affected.

In August 2016 it was revealed that Oleksandr P’iatnytsia of Ukraine, the original silver medalist, was disqualified for a re-test positive for turinabol (dehydrochloromethyltestosterone). Finland’s Antti Ruuskanen was advanced to the silver medal and Czechia’s Vitězslav Veselý was moved up to the bronze medal.