Some of the headlines after last Friday's Diamond League meeting in Doha revolved around the spectacular under-achievement of Norway's current Olympic, world and European javelin champion Andreas Thorkildsen, who finished a lowly fifth.

Thorkildsen had not finished that low in a competition, not counting the qualifying rounds of a major championship, for almost six years.

However, very little mention was made of the Czech winner Petr Frydrych, who won with a toss of 85.32m/279-10, just a one measly centimetre below the best mark in the world at this early stage in the season.

Let's not forget that, in addition to Thorkildsen, Frydrych also came out ahead of Finland Tero Pitkämaki and Russia's Sergey Makarov, the 2007 and 2003 world champions respectively.

The conditions in Doha were also, unlike in most previous years when the wind has been whipping helpfully around the Suhaim Bin Hamad Stadium, hardly conducive for big distances this time around.

So let's give a little bit of credit where it's due and provide Frydrych with a belated round of applause.

"My winning throw was actually my only valid one. I had problems with my spikes and fell down three times, I got a good throw in with my second effort and hoped to add some distance with my third throw, but I slightly injured my foot," said the Prague-based Frydrych by telephone from Doha.

Shanghai this coming Sunday will be Frydrych's next port-of-call, the next leg of this summer's Samsung Diamond League, where he'll face Thorkildsen and Pitkämaki again.

Frydrych, 23, is an outstanding talent who might finally challenge Thorkildsen's javelin hegemony this season.

It looked at one stage as though that might happen last year after he launched his spear out 88.23m / 289-5 at an early season meeting on home soil is Ostrava, only Thorkildsen threw further in 2010, but he couldn't remain at that sort of level for the rest of the summer.

He finished a disappointing 10th at last year's European Outdoor Championships, which was won by Thorkildsen

"At first, I thought it was mental, and that was definitely part of it, as my performances in August and September were all a few metres down. I was throwing so well in May and June but my body was also not strong enough to go through from July to September," added Frydrych.

This year though, he's a little older, a little wiser and a little stronger.

Into the bargain, Frydrych is guided by the javelin great Jan Zelezny, the three-time Olympic champion who still holds the world record with 98.48m / 323-1.

"I've just been in South Africa training for two months with Jan; he's done everything in the event, he's the best man to tell you about the javelin. But, let's be honest, I'm not thinking about his world record. I'll be happy being the second best thrower ever," joked Frydrych.

source: universalsports.com