Backley just short of medal in final fling

Published on Sunday 29 August 2004 00:56

AND then there were none. Steve Backley’s retirement from athletics after last night’s Olympic javelin final - his fourth in an outstanding career - draws a line under a golden era for British athletics.

And how close Backley came to adding a fourth Olympic medal to his collection, his third-round effort of 84.13 metres defying his aching bones to place him fourth - close, but no cigar - in an event where a new generation is moving in: Andreas Thorkidson, the Norwegian winner with 84.13 metres, is but 22.

Sally Gunnell, Colin Jackson, John Regis, Jonathan Edwards: all retired long ago. It was symbolic, perhaps, that Backley was the last to go, for he was always the most reliable, consistently delivering medals from the moment he made his international debut 17 years ago, winning the European junior title. Dave Moorcroft and his staff at UK Athletics must shudder at the thought of how they will replace the irreplaceable.

Now 35, Backley’s international breakthrough was literally half a lifetime away, since when the son of a south London policeman has managed to fill it with more than a lifetime of achievement that includes an unprecedented four European senior titles, setting three world records along the way and winning three Olympic medals though, cruelly, crucially, none of those gold.

Now, new challenges await. Earlier this year, he became a father for the first time, and already he has managed to develop a business career for himself around his second great sporting passion, golf.

A seven-handicap player (Mick Hill, a regular golf partner, reckons his old throwing buddy could soon be off scratch given a few months play without the distractions of athletics), Backley has already been working as a fitness consultant to a number of leading European Tour players. So don’t be surprised if the likes of Ian Poulter are soon hitting the ball off the tee Tigerish distances.

"The training for the javelin is kind of what a golfer needs: it is dynamic, it is balance, it is rhythm, it is co-ordination," Backley says. "Because golf has no history of training, they do not really know how to go about it.

"There is this great hunger for information about training in the golf world and I would like to think I am capable of supplying it.

"Golf is evolving into an athletic sport, where up until now it has been a game. That transformation can only be good for someone like me to be involved. It is a toned down version of a javelin thrower’s training with a golfing kind of accent.

"There has been training in the past for golf, but it has been sporadic. And the people who have done it successfully, like Tiger Woods, have taken the game by storm. It is all about having a physical potential greater than the rest of the field."

Yet such matters have been set aside for the past six months almost entirely. "The Olympics is everything," Backley says, "the only time an athlete really gets to change his status."

Backley, the only British athlete ever to win medals at three Games, has never really enjoyed the sort of wider public status he deserves. An Olympic bronze and two silvers probably consigned him to that.

"I have been to three Olympics and I have three medals," Backley says. "But to be able to say that Olympic champion is the one that would makes thing different. It would change my status."

Backley came closest in Sydney four years ago, when he led into the final round. He suffered agonies, though, as he watched his old rival Jan Zelezny, from the Czech Republic, hurl his spear to an Olympic record to snatch the gold.

"When I think back, that was probably my most memorable performance," Backley says.

Now, though, Backley reckons it is time to move on. The Athens Olympics has discovered a new generation of stars: Bekele has replaced Gebrselassie; Liu dispatched Allen Johnson; Kluft has effectively ended Denise Lewis’s career; and Veronica Campbell has won the two Olympic sprint gold medals that always eluded Merlene Ottey.

So, too, the men’s javelin field last night was full of new, more youthful faces, eager for their chance in the glow of the Olympic flame.

Backley, his hands on his knees after his third and final throw in qualification on Thursday, seemed resigned to being denied his final hurrah on the greatest stage, as he failed to achieve the automatic qualifying distance. He moved straight through the mixed zone, without a word for anyone. Only two hours later did his reprieve come through, and he was in, 12th of 12.

He won’t be back again. "I could not put myself through another four-year cycle to another Olympics," Backley said before the Games, adding, "There is no better place to call it a day than at the Olympics."