Offenburg (dpa) – In the year following the Great Olympic Frustration, things didn’t go according to plan for first javelin thrower Johannes Vetter in the World Cup and European Championship season.
The 2017 world champion has called off his starts in two internationals and is working on his training form three and a half weeks before the German championships in Berlin. “It’s exhausting both physically and mentally, because we’ve never experienced it this way before,” the 29-year-old said from the German news agency DPA. “I thought I could do better in the first competitions of the season.”
With 85.64 meters from the start in Offenburg two weeks ago, Vetter is only third behind Andreas Hoffmann (Mannheim / 86.09) and Julian Weber (Mainz / 85.64) in Germany’s best annual list, which usually has runs of well over 90 metres. As World Player of the Year at 96.29 metres, he was also the favorite for Olympic gold in August last year, but couldn’t handle his aggressive throwing technique on the soft surfaces of the racetrack. The ninth place with 82.52 meters instead of the Olympic champion was the disappointing result in the end.
I currently have other issues that need to be resolved.
“I don’t think much about the last year because I haven’t dealt with him anywhere. I currently have other problems to solve,” Vetter said. “I have some technical and physical problems following. Small dribbling movements cause excessive stress to muscle groups, ligaments, and tendons. Unfortunately, the force isn’t going in the right direction at the moment – and then it hurts here and there. “The German record holder, whose length is 97.76 meters from 2020, can only fall 72 centimeters behind the Czech coach Jan Zelezny. The world record remained.
Vetter already seemed puzzled when, frustrated, he decided not to start last week after throwing the ball at Dessau. He has canceled starts at Ostrava on Tuesday and Hengelo on White Monday from his plan. “I won’t be doing any more competitions for the next two weeks. I look from day to day,” the LG Offenberg athlete said.
Report physical values that speak of good condition. “But javelin throwing is also a very delicate system, everything has to fit in,” Vetter said. We analyze, try and see what the problem is. In javelin throwing, sometimes it’s the little things that set off a chain reaction.”
“The articles have changed, the laws have not changed.”
The floor covering in Tokyo, on which Vetter fell so painfully, was nothing simple. So Vetter is campaigning for standardization of startup terms. “Nobody has really thought about it much since the ’90s. The materials have changed and the laws haven’t changed,” said athlete from coach Boris Obergfull. “In my opinion, there is only one way you can really throw away – and it takes a very strong bone to do that. If the ground does not travel along, the spear will not fly more than 90 meters and certainly not more than 95 meters.”
Supported by the German Athletics Federation. “If you remember the pictures of the Olympic Games, it’s very clear that we all struggled with Johannes,” said Idris Gonczynska, CEO of DLV. “Of course it has a miraculous effect when such a world class athlete is personally involved.”
Vetter announced a “good solution” for the European Championships from 15-21 August in Munich. For the World Cup in the USA from July 15-24, there is still a problem. “We hear from American javelins that the rubber is very soft,” he said. “But right now I have other things to do and a little time to think about it.”