16 TLTCIS

C

AHEIS

JARROD BANNISTER SAYS: “I feel like an athlete now!”

There are few things more difficult for an athlete to go through than entering a

competition as the top ranked competitor and

come away outside of the major places. It is even more difficult when that competition is the Olympic Games. Welcome to Jarrod

Bannister’s world in August, 2008.

Bannister had set

an Australian record in the javelin at the national championships five months earlier, sending the 800 gram implement soaring 89.02m. The mark wasn’t surpassed during the year until Norway’s Andreas Thorkildsen, the reigning Olympic champion, stepped up to the runway in the fifth round of the Olympic final and sent the javelin to a gold medal winning 90.57m.

By that stage of the competition Bannister was out of the running for the medals, injuring his elbow and ultimately finishing in sixth place. It’s been a long

BANNISTER HAS BEEN ENJOYING COMPETING DURING THE AUSTRALIAN ATHLETICS TOUR

rehabilitation for the 25-year-old Queenslander, who has since relocated to Victoria where he is now being coached – in Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36