At the 1970 National Championships, she won both the Open and Junior javelin titles. Still only seventeen, it was her fourth national junior javelin championship win. Her performances earned her a place in the Australian team for the 1970 Commonwealth Games where she comfortably won the gold medal in Edinburgh.
In late 1971, she threw Australian and World Junior records of 61.76 and 62.24 metres, in quick succession but injury kept her out of the 1972 national titles and Olympic Games. She recovered to repeat her Commonwealth Games gold medal win in Auckland but continuing injuries forced her retirement from the sport, at age 22, in 1975.
Four years later, Rivers returned from retirement and gained Olympic selection for the 1980 Moscow Olympics. She won the 1982 national championships with a huge national record throw of 69.28 metres and took the silver medal at the Brisbane Commonwealth Games behind team-mate Sue Howland.
Rivers went on to compete in the 1984 LA Olympics and 1986 Commonwealth Games.
Stephen James Backley, OBE is a retired British track and field athlete who competed in the javelin throw. He formerly held the world record, and his 91.46-metre (300.1 ft) throw from 1992 is the British record. During his career, he was a firm fixture in the British national athletics team. He won four gold medals at the European Championships, three Commonwealth Games gold medals, two silvers and a bronze at the Olympic Games, and two silvers at the World Championships. Currently, he is an occasional commentator for athletics competitions, especially the field events.
Dean Macey is an English athlete from Canvey Island. He is best known for competing in the decathlon, which he did from 1995 to 2008, winning the Commonwealth Games decathlon, two World Championship medals, as well as twice finishing fourth in the Olympic Games. Retiring from decathlon due to injury, he competed in the bobsleigh between 2008 and 2010.
Petria Ann Thomas, is an Australian swimmer and Olympic gold medallist and a winner of 15 national titles. She was born in Lismore, New South Wales, and grew up in the nearby town of Mullumbimby.
Kelly Jade Sotherton is a British former heptathlete, long jumper and relay runner. In the heptathlon she was the bronze medallist at the 2004 Summer Olympics and, following the disqualification of two other athletes, also at the 2008 Summer Olympics, as well as being part of the bronze medal-winning team in the Women's 4x400m relay at the 2008 Summer Olympics. As such she is one of only five women to win multiple medals in Olympic heptathlon. She also won a bronze at the 2007 World Championships in Athletics. Representing England, Sotherton is a one-time Commonwealth Games champion, as the heptathlon gold medallist at the 2006 Commonwealth Games.
Theresa Ione Sanderson is a British former javelin thrower. She appeared in every Summer Olympics from 1976 to 1996, winning the gold medal in the javelin throw at the 1984 Olympics. She was the second track and field athlete to compete at six Olympics, and the first Black British woman to win an Olympic gold medal.
Fatima Whitbread, is a British retired javelin thrower. She broke the world record with a throw of 77.44 m in the qualifying round of the 1986 European Athletics Championships in Stuttgart, and became the first British athlete to set a world record in a throwing event. Whitbread went on to win the European title that year, and took the gold medal at the 1987 World Championships. She is also a two-time Olympic medallist, winning bronze at the 1984 Summer Olympics and silver at the 1988 Summer Olympics. She won the same medals, respectively, in the Commonwealth Games of 1982 and 1986.
Dame Valerie Kasanita Adams is a retired New Zealand shot putter. She is a four-time World champion, four-time World Indoor champion, two-time Olympic, three-time Commonwealth Games champion and twice IAAF Continental Cup winner. She has a personal best throw of 21.24 metres (69.7 ft) outdoors and 20.98 metres (68.8 ft) indoors. These marks are Oceanian, Commonwealth and New Zealand national records. She also holds the Oceanian junior record (18.93 m) and the Oceanian youth record (17.54 m), as well as the World Championships record, World Indoor Championships record and Commonwealth Games record.
Petra Meier is a retired German track and field athlete who competed in the javelin throw. Representing East Germany, she became the Olympic Champion in 1988 and broke the world record four times between 1985 and 1988. She is the only woman to throw a javelin 80 metres or more, with her world record of 80.00 m. This throw was the world record from 1988 until 1999, when a new javelin design was implemented. She also won the javelin title at the 1989 IAAF World Cup and silver medals at the World Championships in 1987 and 1991.
Katherine Dinah "Goldie" Sayers is a British former javelin thrower, who won a bronze medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics. She was born in Newmarket, Suffolk, England. On 20 May 2007, Sayers set a new British record in the javelin at 65.05 m, thus becoming the first British woman to throw over 65 metres since javelins were redesigned in 1999. Sayers set the record when competing for her university, Loughborough, at the Loughborough International match. She cemented this achievement at the Norwich Union Glasgow Grand Prix on 3 June 2007 where she beat a top-class international field in rainy conditions with a throw of 63.59 m. Defeated rivals included European champion and Olympic silver medallist Steffi Nerius and world champion Barbora Špotáková.
Dani Stevens is a retired Australian discus thrower who in 2009 became the youngest ever female world champion in the event. She is the current national and Oceanian record holder. Stevens qualified for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and threw 58.77m in the Women's dicus throw. This was not a sufficient distance to qualify her for the final.
Sultana Frizell is a Canadian track and field athlete competing in the hammer throw. Frizell currently trains under the guidance of Derek Evely in Kamloops, British Columbia. She competed at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing and the 2012 Olympic Games in London. Frizell is the former Commonwealth Games champion in the hammer throw and Commonwealth Games record holder for the event as well.
Julius Yego is a Kenyan track and field athlete who competes in the javelin throw. Nicknamed "Mr. YouTube" because he learned how to throw by watching YouTube videos of javelin athletes, Yego is the African record holder for the event with a personal best of 92.72 m.
In India, the sport of athletics was introduced during the period of the British Raj. The sport is governed at national level by the Athletics Federation of India, which was formed in 1946. Despite its large population, few Indian athletes have won a medal in a global or major championship. This began to change in the 21st century, when Indians started taking greater interest in athletics more generally and improved facilities for the sport began to be built at a local level. At a continental level, it has been among the more successful Asian nations, though some distance behind China and Japan.
Hollie Beth Arnold, is a British parasport athlete competing in category F46 javelin. Although born in Grimsby, she now lives and trains in Loughborough. She represents Wales in the Commonwealth Games. Arnold was the youngest ever field athlete to ever compete in the Paralympics/Olympics, at the age of 14 at the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing throwing a personal best. She also threw a personal best in 2012 Summer Paralympics in London. She took the gold medal in the F46 javelin in the 2016 Rio Paralympics, also throwing a new world record at the same time. In 2021, at the delayed 2020 Tokyo Paralympics, she took the bronze medal in the same event. In 2018, she became the first ever Javelin thrower in history to hold all four major titles in the same Paralympic/Olympic 4-year cycle: Rio Paralympics and world record 2016, London World Championships and world record 2017, Berlin European Championships and course record 2018 and Gold Coast Commonwealth Games and world record 2018. She also holds four consecutive world titles: 2013 Lyon, 2015 Doha, 2017 London, and 2019 Dubai.
Morgan Lake is a British high jumper. She won the silver medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games and placed fourth at the 2022 Commonwealth Games. Lake finished sixth in the 2017 World Championships in Athletics and fourth in the 2018 World Indoor Championships.
Annu Rani Dharayan in a Jat family of Dharayan gotra. Is an Indian javelin thrower from Meerut, Uttar Pradesh. She was the first Indian to reach the finals of the women's javelin throw event in the World Athletics Championships, Doha, 2019. Annu had qualified for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics through world rankings after missing out on the Olympic Qualification mark. Her career best effort is 63.24m which helped her win the gold in the National Interstate Athletic Championship, Patiala, 2021.In the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games, Annu Rani scripted history as she became the first Indian female javelin thrower to win a medal, a bronze. She is the first Indian Javelin thrower to win a Gold medal in Asian games 2023 at Hangzhou.
Janieve Russell is a Jamaican track and field athlete who competes mainly in the 400 metres hurdles and the 400 metres sprint. She won an Olympic bronze medal in the 4 × 400 m relay in Tokyo 2021, where she also finished fourth in the 400m hurdles final in a personal best of 53.08 secs. She is a four-time Commonwealth Games gold medallist, winning the 400m hurdles title in 2018 and 2022, and the 4 × 400 m relay in 2014 and 2018. She has also won two relay silvers at the World Championships and a relay gold at the World Indoor Championships.
Liu Shiying is a Chinese athlete who competes in the javelin throw. She is the first Asian athlete to win an Olympic gold medal in women's javelin throw.
Kelsey-Lee Barber is an Australian track and field athlete who competes in the javelin throw. She won gold at the 2019 World Championships, and her personal best of 67.70 m ranks her 13th in the overall list.
Neeraj Chopra is an Indian track and field athlete, who is the reigning Olympic champion and World champion in Men's javelin throw. He is the first Asian athlete to win an Olympic gold medal in javelin and the first Asian to win gold in his event at the World Championship. A Junior Commissioned Officer Subedar (JCO) in the Indian Army, Chopra is the first track and field athlete to win a gold medal for India at the Olympics. He is also the first track and field athlete from India to win at the World Under-20 Championships, where in 2016 he achieved a world U20 record throw of 86.48 m, becoming the first Indian athlete to set a world record.
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