Petra Felke
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SC Motor Jena | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Achievements and titles | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Personal bests | WR 80.00 m (1988) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Petra Meier (
Career
Born Petra Felke in
Her first world record came on 4 June 1985, when she broke the record twice on the same day, with throws of 75.26 and 75.40 metres. She ended the 1985 season throwing 66.22 metres to finish second behind Olga Gavrilova at the World Cup in Canberra. A year later at the 1986 European Championships, she threw 72.52 m to win the silver medal behind Great Britain's Fatima Whitbread. Her third world record came on 29 July 1987, when she threw 78.90 metres, but five weeks later at the World Championships in Rome, she again finished second to Whitbread, who won with 76.64 m to Felke's 71.76 m.
On 9 September 1988, Felke broke the world record for the fourth time and became the first woman to ever throw the javelin further than 80 metres. The world record throw was officially measured at 80.00 m, exactly. However, the rules in force at the time dictated that measurements had to be rounded down to the nearest 2 cm, so the actual distance could have been up to 80.0199 metres. Two weeks later, she won the gold medal at the 1988 Seoul Olympics with a throw of 74.68 metres, with Whitbread winning the silver medal and compatriot Beate Koch winning the bronze. She went on to win the 1989 World Cup title in Barcelona, as well as a bronze medal at the 1990 European Championships.
In 1991, now competing for a unified Germany and as Petra Meier, she won silver at the World Championships in Tokyo with a 68.68 m throw. She concluded her international career at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, where she finished seventh with a disappointing 59.02 m. The javelin specifications were changed in 1999 and the records were restarted, thus Meier's record became eternal. As of 2023, Barbora Špotáková is the new world record holder with a throw of 72.28 m.
International competitions
All results regarding Javelin
Year | Competition | Venue | Position | Notes | |
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Representing ![]() | |||||
1977 | European Junior Championships | Donetsk, Soviet Union | 2nd | 57.68 m | |
1981 | Universiade | Bucharest, Romania | 1st | 65.20 m | |
1982 | European Championships | Athens, Greece | 7th | 65.56 m | |
1983 | World Championships | Helsinki, Finland | 9th | 62.02 m | |
1984 | Friendship Games | Prague, Czechoslovakia | 1st | 73.30 m | |
1985 | World Cup | Canberra, Australia | 2nd | 66.22 m | |
1986 | Goodwill Games | Seattle, United States | 1st | 70.78 m | |
European Championships | Stuttgart, Germany | 2nd | 72.52 m | ||
Grand Prix Final | Rome, Italy | 1st | 70.64 m | ||
1987 | World Championships | Rome, Italy | 2nd | 71.76 m | |
1988 | Olympic Games | Seoul, South Korea | 1st | 74.68 m | |
1989 | World Cup | Barcelona, Spain | 1st | 70.32 m | |
1990 | European Championships | Split, Yugoslavia | 3rd | 66.56 m | |
Grand Prix Final | Athens, Greece | 1st | 66.44 m | ||
Representing ![]() | |||||
1991 | World Championships | Tokyo, Japan | 2nd | 68.68 m | |
1992 | Olympic Games | Barcelona, Spain | 7th | 59.02 m |