If you haven’t been paying attention, you may have not noticed that men’s javelin is on FIRE this year. This year it was hands down the best event in track and field. I may be biased as a javelin thrower, but the results speak for itself.

While I personally did not have the greatest season due to some shoulder injuries it didn’t stop our Americans from stepping their game up. We had four Americans throw over 80m. Two of them threw the Olympic Standard (Sam Crouser: 83.33m and Sean Furey: 83.08m).

Those marks are not near Breaux Greer’s American Record of 91.29m, when he threw the record, we had only two guys over 78m the entire year! In 2015 we had 10 athletes over the 78 meter mark (256 feet). I would take depth over one big throw any day. Consistency breeds bigger marks. And I am excited for American javelin throwing next year!

Top guys to watch in America

Sean Furey was our US Champion. He is 32 years old but just hit a personal best of 83.08m (272’6”). Its safe to say that even though he’s the oldest guy in the field he’s still no the rise!

Riley Dolezal was our runner up at nationals, and consistently our best thrower. Currently he’s the U.S.’s highest ranked javelin thrower in the world (12^th place). He’s been consistent 80-81m javelin thrower all year, but didn’t get the Olympic Standard in 2015. Look for him in 2016 to go big.

Sam Crouser came in third place at USA Championships but is better known as the two-time NCAA Champion from Oregon. He fought for a position to go the World Championships and hit a big mark in the summer throwing personal best back to back to back weeks throwing 81.31m, 81.66m, and 83.33m. I am not sure where Sam will be training next year (probably in Portland Oregon with his father), but I am excited to see what he does now that he is out of college.

Noticeable marks: Tim Glover hit a big throw early in the year 84.09m. Tim VanLiew smashed a huge Personal of 79.49m (4m PB). Ben Woodruff has made a big jump from 71m to 78m the last few years. He’s becoming a consistent contender. And let’s not forget about Sam Humphreys or Craig Kinsley. Both are great throwers but suffered injuries in 2015. Look for them next year to redeem themselves.

But the Americans aren’t the only ones dropping bombs. The whole world is doing it too!

The last time we saw a 90m throw was four years ago by Andreas Thorkildsen. But this year we saw not one, not two, but three throws over 90m. For an event that seemed kind of weak the last few years we have made a huge turn around!

In 2015 we had fifteen throws in the top 80 throws of All-Time.

Rank	Mark	Name		Country
3	92.72	Julius Yego	PB	Kenya
9	91.39	Julius Yego		Kenya
14	90.16	Keshorn Walcott	PB	Trinidad
15	89.27	Thomas Rohler	PB	German
19	89.09	Tero Pitkamaki		Finland
22	88.87	Tero Pitkamaki		Finland
25	88.61	Tero Pitkamaki		Finland
20	88.99	Ihab El Sayed		Egypt
21	88.98	Antti Ruuskanen	PB	Finland
32	88.18	Vítezslav Vesely		Czech Republic
32	88.14	Vítezslav Vesely		Czech Republic
48	86.82	Ari Mannio	PB	Finland
86	86.21	Jakub Vadlejch	PB	Czech Republic
62	86.14	Andreas Hofmann	PB	German
72	85.52	Petr Frydrych		Czech Republic
75	85.40	Johannes Vetter	PB	German
76	85.39	Rocco Van Rooyen	PB	South Africa
79	85.20	Marcin Krukowski	PB	Poland

If that’s not crazy enough the throws came from Kenya and Trinidad and Tobago. Who would have guessed that four years ago?

Last year I think we would all agree that the most exciting event to watch was the men’s high jump? There were 25 jumps in the top 100 of all time. Twelve of these jumps were over 2.40m! It was as if something was wrong with gravity and all these jumpers started clearing bars we never thought possible.

But in just one year the men’s high jump has settled back down. The winning mark at World Championships in Beijing was just 2.34m; the lowest winning mark since 2009.

How did the javelin fare? The winner (Julius Yego of Kenya) won by throwing the third farthest throw of all time 92.72m! Only behind Aki Parviainen (93.09m) and the legend Jan Zelezny (98.48m).

But that’s not all. Second place was 88.99m by Egyptian Ihab El Sayed, and third place was 87.64m by Tero Pitkamaki. What is interesting about the top three? They all train together in Finland.

Fourth place was 87.41m by German Thomas Rohler, and fifth place was 87.12m by Antti Ruuskanen. The top 5 all threw over 87m (285 feet)! See full results

But where are the cameras pointing? On the sprints and distance.

I missed the live feed (streaming at a ridiculous hour in the U.S.), but I heard only one throw was shown and it was a scratch from the 2012 Olympic Champion. Even on television replays the javelin is only a foot note. The main focus is on athletes warming up for the 1500m, or a final heat, consisting mainly of drug cheats in the sprints.

I just don’t understand why we can’t get some love. I am not interested in seeing dopers like Justin Gatlin, and never been caught athletes like Usain Bolt race.

I am sorry. I love my sport clean. I will keep completing clean, and keep on watching the underdogs throwing “pointed sticks” in the middle of the field.

Watch the full replay of the Men’s Javelin at the 2015 World Championships