The Confirmation of New Phenomena

In Berlin everyone was talking about the Usain "Ich Bin Ein Berlino" Bolt sensation thanks to his 3 gold medals and the two impressive world records in the 100 and 200 meters earlier this week

but the Jamaican has not been the only phenomenon to confirm the impressive results and achievements done in the recent past.

Among them I'd like to single out Andreas Thorkildsen,

the Norwegian javelin thrower who doubled last year's olympic gold winning today's competition pretty easily, I might say. Now he has become the first athlete to become the reigning European, World and Olympic champion in the discipline, something that not even the great Jan Zelezny has ever achieved. It's true that the man who could have been his closest rival (and who is my personal favorite since he comes from the small finnish twon where my brother spent his AFS year in high school) went through a terrible week: Tero Pitkamaki first suffered from flu and than had to be hospitalized this morning because of an ear infection and nevertheless managed to finish 5th: but Thorkildsen was impressive in the way he did throw the 89.59m that granted him the win with a margin of more than 3 meters on the cuban runner up.

Thorkildsen threw the distance almost with ease, saving his best two throws of the year for the clutch moment - he had been beaten more than once by Pitkamaki this year in the Golden League circuit - of the entire season. Impressive was the fact that he made this sensational throw appear almost like a training throw because he didn't show any hint of fatigue during the run up, during and after the throwing motion. After watching his effort I focused on the other contenders and you could see that they were giving all they had in the tanks, or even something more in the case of Guillermo Martinez who showed that not only the female Cubans can be top level javelin throwers, but Thorkildsen appeared like he could still go a meter further if the situation called for it. An impressive show of power and the demonstration that he's so self-confident of his strength that all the other contenders had no chances today.

This throw earned him, as I said the "Triple Crown", an achievement that prove his consistency when the throw counts over a 3 year period, a crown that he'll try to confirm next year, when the European Championships will be staged in Barcelona. So good luck for it Andreas in the hope that Tero will be finally healthy and ready to challenge you in a major event.