


Hubert Lawrence vom "Jamaica Gleaner" über Julian
" German javelin thrower Julian Weber won't get any closer to next week's European Championships than his TV set. Unfortunately, Weber is the classic case of an athlete being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Despite a mammoth throw of 84.62m, he was merely fourth at his National Championships and has no chance of making the German team.
Those ahead of him are Olympic gold medallist Thomas Rohler, World Champion Johannes Vetter, and new German champion Andreas Hoffman. Weber has to cheer them on from his living room despite the 84.62m being the longest throw ever to earn fourth place and nearly 10m further than the Jamaica record of 75.01m.
That should be a headline, but alas and alack, only track stat geeks will notice. Despite the new IAAF rules, you almost wish there was some way to make him a Jamaican.
That would almost guarantee gold at this week's CAC Games in Barranquilla, Colombia, and at next year's Pan-American Games. The new Jamaican might even upstage one of his former countrymen at the World Championships in Doha. Imagine that, a Jamaican medal in the javelin. "