2009 World Championships in Athletics – Women's javelin throw

The Women's Javelin Throw at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics will be held at the Olympic Stadium on August 16 and August 18. The event featured four athletes whose ability was so much better than the opposition that Mirko Jalava of the IAAF said it would be a "major surprise" should another athlete beat them to the podium.

Events at the 2009 World Championships
Track events
100 m	men	women
200 m	men	women
400 m	men	women
800 m	men	women
1500 m	men	women
5000 m	men	women
10,000 m	men	women
100 m hurdles		women
110 m hurdles	men
400 m hurdles	men	women
3000 m steeplechase	men	women
4 × 100 m relay	men	women
4 × 400 m relay	men	women
Road events
Marathon	men	women
20 km walk	men	women
50 km walk	men
Field events
High jump	men	women
Pole vault	men	women
Long jump	men	women
Triple jump	men	women
Shot put	men	women
Discus throw	men	women
Hammer throw	men	women
Javelin throw	men	women
Combined events
Heptathlon		women
Decathlon	men

The Olympic champion and world record holder Barbora Špotáková, and Beijing silver medallist Mariya Abakumova, had not matched their Olympic form of the previous year but remained strong contenders for the competition. The other two athletes came from the German team, which was headed by world-leader and two-time World medallist Christina Obergföll, as well as the veteran Steffi Nerius who won silver in 2003, 2005 and 2007. Osleidys Menéndez, Sunette Viljoen and Madara Palameika were the outside contenders.[1]

A modest qualifying round was highlighted by Abakumova's world-leading throw of 68.92 m, while German number three Linda Stahl and Slovenian Martina Ratej threw season's bests to qualify as the second and third best throwers. The first round saw the elimination of two of the season's top-six athletes, Palameika and Viljoen.[2] On the final day, Nerius opened the competition in style with a season's best 67.30 m on her first throw, while Špotáková and Monica Stoian completed the top three with 64.94 and 64.51 m respectively. With a throw of 65.39 m Mariya Abakumova moved into the bronze medal position, and she would remain there for the rest of the event. Obergföll and Stahl moved into the top six in round three, but the positions remained static thereafter. Neither Špotáková nor Abakumova (whose qualifying throw would have won the final) could find the form to dislodge Nerius from the gold medal spot. The 37-year-old German won her first ever World Championship gold medal in Berlin, in what was her final year in competitive athletics.[3]