Steve Backley
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Full name | Stephen James Backley | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Nationality | British | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born | Sidcup, England | 12 February 1969|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Years active | 1989–2004 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Height | 1.95 m (6 ft 5 in)[1] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Weight | 102 kg (225 lb) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Country | ![]() | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sport | Track and field | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Event | Javelin throw | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Club | Cambridge Harriers | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Achievements and titles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Regional finals |
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Personal bests | NR 91.46 m (1992) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Updated on 10 February 2014 |
Stephen James Backley,
Career
Early life
Backley was educated at Hurst Primary School,
Backley's first significant title, was won in 1987 when he threw 75.14 metres to pick up the
1990–1993: World records
In July 1990, Backley set a world record of 89.58m in
2000 Olympics and 2001 World championships
Backley started the year recovering from knee surgery throwing 82.19m against the
At
With the 2001 World Championships in Athletics to look forward to, he threw over ninety metres for the first time since 1992 at the British Grand Prix at Crystal Palace on 22 July. He had trailed behind Latvian Ēriks Rags (86.47) and American Breaux Greer (85.91) who had both produced personal bests before he pulled out a huge 90.81 with his final throw.
This should have given him an enormous for boost for the worlds in Edmonton, but on 10 August Backley had not taken his A-game to the show. He could only manage 81.50 in the qualifying rounds and when both pools had finished this left him way down in thirteenth place. One consolation was that his teammate Mick Hill had qualified well, but even this good news was short lived as Mick unfortunately picked up an injury and only managed to record one distance in the final, finishing last.
Jan Železný took gold with a championship record of 92.80 ahead of Aki Parviainen (91.31) and Konstadinós Gatsioúdis of Greece (89.95). American, Breaux Greer once again increased his personal best to 87.00 in finishing one place outside the medals.
Such was his disgust at his performance he had been contemplating retirement but re-appeared in Gateshead,[citation needed] for the Norwich Union Classic and gained a little revenge by beating world silver medallist Aki Parviainen with a throw of 86.74. Of his six throws this day five of them would have qualified for final nine days earlier.
Backley then travelled to Brisbane in September to take part in the Goodwill Games but despite leading after two rounds, the up and down season continued and he could not improve to leave Jan Železný on top once again ahead of Ēriks Rags and Breaux Greer.
2002 Commonwealth and European champion
It was going to be a busy with two major back-to-back competitions, the Commonwealth Games on 25 July – 4 August and the European Championships on 6–11 August .
On 31 July was the first test and with no major competition he knew that he had reclaimed his Commonwealth title after his very first throw of 86.81 in the City of
The
World record holder
Closing career
Backley began the year having problems with a
A couple of weeks later at the North Down International at
It was therefore disappointing when after managing to qualify for the final, only in seventh position, at the
In Backley's final year of competition in 2004, where he was hoping to add to his Olympic medal haul, he struggled to find form and at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, in a wide-open field, he only made the final as the last non-automatic qualifier. In the final his third round throw of 84.13 metres pulled him up to fourth place but he could not improve on this and finished in that position unable to gain a medal at his fourth consecutive games.
Personal best
Backley's personal best was 91.46 metres achieved on 25 January 1992 at North Shore City, New Zealand. That throw still stands as the British record in men's javelin.
Life outside athletics
Backley was awarded the MBE in the 1995 New Year's Honours list, and then an OBE in 2003. He was inducted into the London Youth Games Hall of Fame in 2009. He was also on a special Olympic medal winners version of Jungle Run. The team collected the most monkey statues ever, getting 3 minutes out of a possible 3 minutes and 20 seconds. The team walked out of the temple with about 35 seconds to spare. The other members of the team were Mark Foster and Iwan Thomas.
Backley competed in the 2008 edition of
In August 2014, Backley was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian expressing their hope that Scotland would vote to remain part of the United Kingdom in September's referendum on that issue.[7]
International competitions
Seasonal bests by year
![]() | This section of a biography of a living person does not include any references or sources. (June 2022) |
World Record and / or 90m+ in bold.
- ^ a b As detailed above, the Németh model javelin introduced in 1990 was retroactively deemed illegal by the IAAF in August 1991
See also
References
- ^ "Steve Backley". sports-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 9 February 2014.
- ^ "Olympians". cambridgeharriers.org. Archived from the original on 30 March 2023. Retrieved 5 September 2023.
- ^ "Hall of Fame retrieved 2013-02-19".
- ^ "University Honours archive | Graduation | Loughborough University". www.lboro.ac.uk. Retrieved 9 February 2024.
- ^ a b "Steve Backley – Personally Speaking Bureau". Retrieved 19 June 2017.
- ^ "Blogposts". The Guardian.
- ^ "Celebrities' open letter to Scotland – full text and list of signatories | Politics". The Guardian. 7 August 2014. Retrieved 26 August 2014.
External links
- Steve Backley at World Athletics
- Steve Backley at Olympedia
- Steve Backley at Olympics.com
- Steve Backley at Team GB
- STEVE BACKLEY Timeline. NYT. Retrieved 2010-06-08.
- Steve Backley Profile by MTC Talent Management
- Official website