Jarrod Bannister (3 October 1984 – 8 February 2018) was an Australian

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...

athlete who competed in the

javelin throw The javelin throw is a track and field event where the javelin, a spear about in length, is thrown. The javelin thrower gains momentum by running within a predetermined area. Javelin throwing is an event of both the men's decathlon and the ...

. His personal best throw of 89.02 metres, achieved in 2008, is the

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Au ...

and Oceanian record.

Career

Bannister was born in

Townsville Townsville is a city on the north-eastern coast of Queensland, Australia. With a population of 180,820 as of June 2018, it is the largest settlement in North Queensland; it is unofficially considered its capital. Estimated resident population, 3 ...

, Queensland on 3 October 1984. He won the youth javelin title at the

Australian Athletics Championships The Australian Athletics Championships or Australian Open Track and Field Championships are held annually to determine Australia's champion athletes in a range of athletics events. The championships are the primary qualification trial for athlete ...

in 2001. He later won five senior javelin national titles: in 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010, and 2012. He competed twice at the

World Championships in Athletics The World Athletics Championships (until 2019 known as the World Championships in Athletics) are a biennial athletics competition organized by World Athletics (formerly IAAF, International Association of Athletics Federations). Alongside the Ol ...

, placing eleventh in qualifying in 2007 and finishing seventh in the final in 2011. He represented his country at the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...

in 2008 and 2012, finishing sixth at the former and placing twenty-seventh in the qualifying stage of the latter. He won gold at the

2010 Commonwealth Games The 2010 Commonwealth Games (Hindi: 2010 राष्ट्रमण्डल खेल), officially known as the XIX Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Delhi 2010, was an international multi-sport event that was held in Delhi, India, f ...

– the first and only international senior medal of his career. This made him the first Australian winner in that event for nearly fifty years, following in the footsteps of 1962 champion Alf Mitchell. In June 2013, he received a 20-month doping ban after missing three tests in the previous 18 months, which is equivalent to a failed test. He maintained this was accidental and said the testers were given incorrect information on one occasion. He returned to competition in 2015. He also competed in 2016 but did not participate in the 2017 season.

Death

On 8 February 2018, Bannister was found dead in his home in

Eindhoven Eindhoven () is a city and municipality in the Netherlands, located in the southern province of North Brabant of which it is its largest. With a population of 238,326 on 1 January 2022,Fairfax Media Fairfax Media was a media company in Australia and New Zealand, with investments in newspaper, magazines, radio and digital properties. The company was founded by John Fairfax as John Fairfax and Sons, who purchased ''The Sydney Morning Herald' ...

reported there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding his death. Athletics commentator and ex-Olympian

David Culbert David Thomas Culbert (born 17 March 1967 in Sydney) is a former international track and field athlete. In an international long jump career that spanned ten years, he won two Commonwealth Games silver medals in 1990 and 1994 and also made fin ...

said Bannister was "a super athlete who sadly had many demons".

International competitions

Seasonal bests

*2002 – 73.31 *2006 – 78.06 *2007 – 83.70 *2008 – 89.02 *2010 – 83.17 *2011 – 82.25 *2012 – 83.70 *2013 – 79.99 *2015 – 76.09 *2016 – 78.29

References

External links