Farquhar exits Rio, retires from sport
Te Aroha’s Stuart Farquhar has come up short in his aim of making a second consecutive Olympic javelin final, and confirmed his retirement from the sport as he departed the arena.
The 34-year old made a disappointing exit in Rio when he failed to fire in the three-round qualifying competition, and admitted it had been a disappointing way to end his fourth appearance at the Games.
He made the final four years ago in London to record his best Olympic result when he finished ninth with a best throw of 80.22m.
But after failing to get anywhere near the automatic qualifying mark in Rio, with his best throw of 77.32m nearly 5m short of what was needed, he brought the curtain down on his long career on an anti-climactic note.
‘‘I left it in the warmup and didn’t really capitalise in the three throws,’’ he told Sky Sports afterwards.
Asked if he’d be back for a tilt at a fifth Olympics, he replied: ‘‘No, no, I won’t do this again. This was my last one.’’
With the automatic mark set at a testing 83 metres (Farquhar qualified for his fourth Games with a throw of 83.93m to win the Australian championship in April), the experienced Kiwi never found his rhythm on a warm night at the stadium.
He opened with 74.24m, then sent his second attempt out to a more respectable 77.32m, before finishing with just 74.38m, despite some vocal urgings. As he walked off all he could offer was a rueful shake of the head.
‘‘I was just under full speed,’’ he explained.
‘‘It’s been a while since I’ve gone at that speed and I just couldn’t quite hold my body position and it was collapsing.
‘‘Therefore I couldn’t deliver a big throw.’’
Just four throwers from Farquar’s group, the first of two in action, hit the automatic mark of 83m. German Julian Weber led them with 84.46m, while Czech Jakub Vadlejch (83.27), Ukrainian Dmytro Kosynsky (83.23) and German Thomas Rohler (83.01) also made it through.
But Farquar’s best throw of 77.32m left him languishing just 15th in the first group, with no hope of making the top 12 who progressed to the final.