Julian Drew: Athletics
Like a javelin out of nowhere is how Marius Corbett arrived on top of the victory rostrum at the World Athletics Championships in Athens last week.
The forgotten man of South African athletics, who improved considerably earlier this year to rank 14th in the world going into the championships, he added nearly five metres to his personal best in the final in Athens to spring the biggest upset of the championships.
But according to his coach Tertius Liebenberg he has always had the mark of greatness stamped on him. “The very first day I saw him I told the guys this is someone special.
“He is such a superb athlete. Just his physique, his height, his feeling for the throw. We said many years ago we have a future world champion our hands and I’m just pleased for Marius that he went out there and achieved this wonderful performance,” said Liebenberg.
“I think a lot of credit should also go to all the people who have played a role in his success. Firstly his school coaches and then his physiotherapist Bert Haltingh who has kept him in such good nick.”
That his physiotherapist should be singled out for such praise gives an indication as to why Corbett has been a virtual unknown in his own country despite winning the world junior title in Lisbon in 1994.
That victory was expcted to pave the way for a highly successful athletics career but instead it marked the beginning of two harrowing years when Corbett began to give up hope of ever throwing the javelin again.
“After Lisbon I came home and I thought if I could have a good winter programme I would be throwing in Europe the following year. But in my first competition back home I injured my elbow and soon afterwards I injured my shoulder,” said Corbett.
“I wouldn’t say I ever gave up hope completely but I was very frustrated. Many, many times I would go to the track and try to throw but every time it was just too painful and I had to go home.
“I really love athletics but it went on for so long that I began to think that maybe it won’t happen again.”
The javelin throw is a technically complex discipline which places huge strain on the shoulder, elbow and knees in particular, but can also produce injuries elsewhere in the body.
Even Corbett’s world junior championships gold medal was a touch-and-go affair after he spent 10 weeks without throwing in the lead-up to Lisbon because of a condition known as spondolisthesis in his lower back. “It was caused by the sheer size of the guy and the fact that he was still growing. The impact on his lower back from the throwing mechanism was just too much,” said Liebenberg.
After his two-year lay-off, Corbett improved steadily through the local season until he achieved an Athletics South Africa qualifying standard at the Engen meeting in Pretoria at the beginning of April with a massive throw of 83.90m. But that personal best came with a price and he was forced to take a three-week rest because of a groin strain.
He went back to a basic strength programme before competing again in Dakar in June, but although he threw 83m again at the Southern African regional championships in Durban at the end of June nobody, not even Corbett himself, was prepared for what happened in Athens.
After qualifying for the final with the 10th best distance of the 12 finalist with his mark of 80.72m, he opened with a disappointing 76.58m. But on the next throw everything clicked into gear. “You can feel when you have a bad throw because there will be a pain your elbow or somewhere else. But on that throw there was no pain and when the javelin flew I could see it was going to be a personal best although I didn’t think it would be 88m (88.40m).”
In javelin throwing at least, it would appear that the old maxim of “No pain, no gain” does not apply. That second round throw of Corbett’s proved enough to win the gold medal despite the late onslaught of former world record-holder Steve Backley who claimed silver with 86.80m on his last throw and the desperate attempts of Kostas Gatzioudis who had the Greek crowd roaring on his every throw.
“Everybody wanted the Greek guy to win. When we were standing on the podium and I had my gold medal around my neck, Gatzioudis got his bronze and the people went absolutely crazy. I was a bit surprised but then I looked down and thought, `Oh well, I have the medal and nobody is going to take it away from me.’ “
And for Corbett that gold medal also means he will never again be the forgotten man of South African athletics.