Andrus Värnik (born 27 September 1977) is a retired Estonian

track and field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...

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 as far as possible. The javelin thrower gains momentum by running within a predetermined area. Javelin throwing is an event of both the men's de ...

. He is a World Champion, having won gold in

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

. His personal best throw of 87.83 m, set in 2003, was the Estonian record for 15 years.

Career

Värnik won his first international medal, a

silver medal A silver medal, in sports and other similar areas involving competition, is a medal made of, or plated with, silver awarded to the second-place finisher, or runner-up, of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, ...

, in the

2003 World Championships in Athletics The 9th World Championships in Athletics, under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations, were held from 23 August to 31 August 2003 in the streets of Paris and the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, Seine-Saint-Denis, F ...

, throwing 85.17 m. The next year he finished sixth in the javelin contest at the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a Multi-s ...

with the result 83.25 m. With 87.17 m he won a surprise

gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have b ...

at the

2005 World Championships in Athletics The 10th World Championships in Athletics (, ), under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), were held in the Olympic Stadium, Helsinki, Finland (6 August 2005 – 14 August 2005), the site of the first ...

, ahead of Olympic champion Andreas Thorkildsen, defending World Champion Sergey Makarov and home favorite Tero Pitkämäki.

Personal life

In 2007, Värnik participated as a celebrity contestant on the second season of '' Tantsud tähtedega'', an Estonian version of ''

Strictly Come Dancing ''Strictly Come Dancing'' (commonly referred to as ''Strictly'') is a British dance contest show in which celebrities partner with professional dancers to compete in mainly Ballroom dance, ballroom and Latin dance, Latin dance. Each couple is ...

''. His professional dancing partner was Kaisa Oja. On 16 January 2010, Värnik was caught drunk driving in Tallinn. He was banned from driving for 4 months and fined 12,000 kroons.

Achievements

Seasonal bests by year

*2000 – 82.16 *2001 – 80.83 *2002 – 85.47 *2003 – 87.83 *2004 – 87.58 *2005 – 87.19 *2006 – 84.85 *2007 – 75.96 *2008 – 81.11 *2009 – 82.00 *2010 – 74.50 *2011 – 76.20

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Varnik, Andrus 1977 births Living people People from Antsla Sportspeople from Võru County Estonian male javelin throwers Olympic athletes for Estonia Athletes (track and field) at the 2000 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2004 Summer Olympics World Athletics Championships medalists World Athletics Championships athletes for Estonia Recipients of the Order of the White Star, 3rd Class World Athletics Championships winners