I WAS ON MY OWN - BUT NOW I'M ELATED

Jo, what did you say to yourself after the two no-throws? Well I'm afraid you just would not be able to print it. Some pretty harsh words were going through my head and I was mentally working very hard not to panic. I knew if I didn't get this third throw in my chances of getting a medal, let alone continuing in the competition, would be over.

Straight away I started to get my mental state of mind ready for the third throw by trying to calm down, as by now nobody could help me. I was on my own.

"I also continued to keep warm by moving around. I ignored the rest of the competitors as it really didn't matter what the other competitors threw. All I was interested in was getting a legal throw in.

Then there was the choice of whether I should do a one-turn, two-turn or three-turn throw. No question. I knew I could do it with the two-turn throw. I just had to make sure I was more positive on my turns.

How did it feel when you got it right? Relief! It overwhelmed me. I didn't care how far it was. It was out and legal. That was a close call.

It was only then that I started to pay attention to what was happening around me '” how the competition was going etc, and to my surprise I suddenly found that I was leading.

Not for one minute did I think it would be the winning throw.

How good had you expected the opposition to be? I knew there were four competitors who could be a threat to my chances of winning the gold medal.

Heather Withrow (USA) who won it four years ago and holds the world record. Pavllina Malerova (Czech Republic) had years of experience behind her and is a very consistent athlete. Katja Friedrich (Germany) is another powerful athlete.

The fourth? Anybody. A newcomer or another who has improved. As it turned out, from a count of 12 or 13 competitors there were only five of us competing on the day. Two were still in the other competitions and it was reported some pulled out due to injury.

Also, at very short notice the discus was on the same day. One or two may have pulled out to concertrate on that. Many throwing athletes did three or two of the throwing events.

But it did win it. How did you feel then? Elated.

You were quite a way outside the world record you targeted. Why wasn't it threatened?

It was not just nerves and pressures. A number of things happened that changed the course of the competition.

You think you have prepared for every eventuality but I was caught of guard in a couple of situations, enough for the world record to remain unchallenged.

You didn't do as well as you'd hoped in the discus. What was the problem? A number of factors played a part.

At a games of this magnitude you don't normally have two throwing competitions together. After the hammer I was wiped out from all the nervous energy and pressures from the competition.

I was very relaxed by then '” perhaps too relaxed. I had just got off the podium from receiving my gold medal. I had a injury that prevented me from training with the discus.

I had to put priority first which, of course, was the hammer. Therefore my preparation for the discus was not good. However, I have set myself some goals and one of them is to improve my discus.