The Women's javelin throw competition at the
2012 Summer Olympics
The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...
in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
, United Kingdom. The event was held at the
Olympic Stadium
''Olympic Stadium'' is the name usually given to the main stadium of an Olympic Games. An Olympic stadium is the site of the opening and closing ceremonies. Many, though not all, of these venues actually contain the words ''Olympic Stadium'' as ...
on 7–9 August. Each athlete receives three throws in the qualifying round. All who achieve the qualifying distance progress to the final. If less than twelve athletes achieve this mark, then the twelve furthest throwing athletes reach the final. Each finalist is allowed three throws in last round, with the top eight athletes after that point being given three further attempts.
The qualifying round was mostly automatic marks. Eight athletes hit the auto mark in their first legal attempt. It took 60.11 to make the final.
The final was dominated by defending champion and world record holder
Barbora Špotáková
Barbora Špotáková (; born 30 June 1981) is a former Czech track and field athlete who competed in the javelin throw. She is a two-time Olympic Champion and three-time World Champion, as well as the current world record holder with a throw of ...
who took the lead on the first throw of the competition, a lead she would never relinquish. On the second throw of the competition
Sunette Viljoen
Sunette Stella Viljoen (born 6 October 1983) is a South African sportswoman who has represented her country in both cricket and athletics. In athletics, she competes as a javelin thrower and has won an Olympic silver medal ( in 2016) and two Com ...
got off her best throw, which would put her in third place. Later in the round,
Christina Obergföll
Christina Obergföll (; born 22 August 1981) is a retired German track and field athlete who competed in the javelin throw. She was World Champion in 2013. Her personal best throw of 70.20 m is the German record. It also ranks her fifth on ...
got off her only legal throw, which turned out to be the silver medal throw. Each round Špotáková kept putting out long throws, but didn't improve. In the fourth round,
Linda Stahl
Linda Stahl (born 2 October 1985) is a retired German track and field athlete who competed in the javelin throw.
Career
She won gold at the 2010 European Athletics Championships in Barcelona, Spain, throwing a then personal best throw of 66.81 ...
passed Viljoen to move into bronze medal position. Then Špotáková let loose the winner, her 69.55—more than 2.5 metres further than her previous bests—which won the competition by 4.39 metres. None of the medalists even got a legal throw in the final two rounds. Any one of Špotáková's four legal throws would have won the gold medal.
Schedule
All times are British Summer Time
During British Summer Time (BST), civil time in the United Kingdom is advanced one hour forward of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), in effect changing the time zone from UTC±00:00 to UTC+01:00, so that mornings have one hour less daylight, and ev ...
(UTC+1
UTC+01:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +01:00. In ISO 8601, the associated time would be written as 2019-02-07T23:28:34+01:00. This time is used in:
*Central European Time
*West Africa Time
*Western European Summer Time
** B ...
)
Records
, the existing World and Olympic records were as follows.
Results
Qualifying round
Qual. rule: qualification standard 62.00m (Q) or at least best 12 qualified (q).
Final
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Athletics at the 2012 Summer Olympics - Women's javelin throw
Athletics at the 2012 Summer Olympics
Javelin throw at the Olympics
2012 in women's athletics
Women's events at the 2012 Summer Olympics