Sergey Makarov

Russia’s 2003 World Championships javelin gold medallist Sergey Makarov is still throwing well at the age of 38 and produced a world-leading mark of 85.53m at the Nizamutdinov Memorial throwing meeting in Adler on Saturday.

It was his best throw since 2008 and means that he has now thrown over 82 metres for 18 consecutive years, every year since 1994. He also had three further throws over 80 metres in Adler.

Behind Makarov, the 2010 World Junior Championships bronze medallist Dmitriy Tarabin improved his personal best to 81.30m while 19-year-old Valeriy Yordan also achieved a lifetime best with a senior javelin when he threw 80.15m for third place.

Yordan is likely to be a medal contender at the 2011 European Athletics Junior Championships in Tallinn, Estonia, this summer although the big favourite for gold is Latvia’s Zigismunds Sirmais, who threw a world junior record of 84.47m at the European Cup Winter Throwing in Sofia last month.

source:european-athletics.org