Toledo’s gauntlet
Argentine javelin thrower takes aim at infinity BUENOS AIRES: The javelin thrown by Braian Toledo soars to the far end of the field and disappears in the long grass as coach Gustavo Osorio says “that must be a good 85 metres”.
The grass is long in most parts of the field in Marcos Paz where the unassuming Argentine 18year-old practises, dreaming of Olympic glory. It is not a proper athletics field, rather two unkempt soccer pitches side by side with no grass at all in the worn goalmouths.
All around the field beside an abandoned railway track in this semi-rural outer suburb of Buenos Aires are modest houses, some mere shacks, any one of which could be the home of Toledo’s poor family, the youngster’s mainstay while he hones a talent Osorio has helped him develop since he was in primary school.
Toledo is a prodigy, one of the gems that occasionally appear in Argentine sport.
The 2010 Youth Olympic champion holds a world’s best of 89.34m with the shorter, lighter 700-gram javelin and won bronze among hardened seniors at the Pan-american Games in Guadalajara last October with a personal best of 79.53m with the senior 800-gram javelin.
Tattooed on the inside of his left wrist are the Olympic rings and the name Jan Zelezny, his idol, plus the number 98.48 which is the Czech’s world record set in 1996 – a distance for Toledo to aim at as he looks, in his own words, to “throw into infinity”.
“I’ll know how to explain infinity to you when I retire and I’ll be able to tell you if I got to infinity or couldn’t,” Toledo said in an interview at the field where he arrived on his bicycle with a bunch of practice javelins.
“The Olympic rings are for when I was Olympic (2010 youth) champion in Singapore and the name (is) Jan Zelezny, holder of the senior world record. (The record) is an objective to go for.”
Toledo’s main objective this year is the World Junior Championships in Barcelona from July 1015, before the London Olympic Games (July 27Aug 12) for which he qualified with his best PanAmerican throw and sees as an experience on the way to Rio de Janeiro in 2016 when he will be 22.
“(To go to London) is a present, a gift to go and get the experience that God is giving me, anticipating 2016, so it’s to learn, to get to 2016 in a different way and with another outlook,” Toledo said. Osorio, speaking in the old sports hall with a high, corrugated roof in Marcos Paz where Toledo works on technique, said: “The junior world championships have always been won by over 80m so it’s a great challenge.
“We’re working to achieve that standard and try to maintain it because it’s difficult to stay there.
“Creativity is an important part of how to make the young, in this case Braian, progress,” said Osorio, who has had to improvise at times with very basic materials to provide training tools.
“It’s part of learning and the passion one puts into it.”
Toledo, a well-built youngster 1.86m tall and still growing, wanted to be a soccer player before realities took grip. “I started football and saw it was not possible, it was hard, my mum couldn’t afford to pay for the minibus to River every day ... we weren’t in a position to spend money that wasn’t for our daily food.
“I discovered this sport and saw I was naturally good at it with a fast arm ... I’m fast, elastic, a jumper, I’m resistant, I’m strong, thanks to God I have all those little attributes that are so important for us (javelin throwers),” he said.
“(At first) I thought it was easy but over the years I realised it wasn’t, that you have to train and make sacrifices to achieve objectives. There are times when you want to say that to be a normal kid would be easier ... To carry on with this is a great responsibility and exhausting, but it’s what I love to do and that’s why I persevere.”