Tavernier’s historic throw | 19.07.2012
In conversation with the French Athletics Federation website, the young woman from Annecy talked about her reaction to her historic performance: “I didn’t think I was capable of that,” she said.
“I came (to Barcelona) with the idea of winning, but I never thought I would get past the 70m-mark. I thought I might manage it next year, but it never occurred to me I could do it so soon.”
The first problem Tavernier had to deal with was in the call-room rather than in the Montjuic stadium when officials confiscated the wet towel she uses to dampen her shoes during competition. It helps with her stability in the circle in the initial phase of her throws.
That might help explain why her start to the competition was not auspicious. A first throw of 66.14 followed by two fouls left her out of the medals in fourth at the half-way mark: “I was apprehensive before the final, but the fact that I had qualified in first place (66.22) gave me a lot of confidence and calmed me down.”
The next throw gave her the title and she followed that up with another huge effort of 69.12 which would also have been good enough to secure gold.
Tavernier’s next objective is to retain her French junior title in Lens and then take a month’s rest. In the meantime she may go to the London Games as a spectator if she can get funding, but if not she will watch them on television.
But it is the next Olympics in Rio that the 18 year old is really targeting: “After throwing 70m I have thought about it a lot. The world juniors were not an end in themselves, it was just a beginning. Between now and then, there is the world championships in Moscow for which I am already qualified and the European Athletics U23 championships in Tampere.
