AFTER MANY YEARS coaching the javelin, Missouri’s Brett Halter has come to rely on an interesting analogy to help his throwers understand how to approach big competitions. “Just like in bull riding,” he explained, “the last thing you want to do in the javelin is to end up in the wrong position with a lot of juice behind it. You can’t force the javelin out there. You don’t will it out there. You have to relax and let the energy of the moment, the energy of the environment carry through to the jav. Otherwise, just like a bull rider, you will get destroyed.”
That was the advice he gave to Callan Saldutto, a Missouri senior who came into Wednesday’s comp — his first NCAA — not having produced a PR in 2 years.
“Just relax,” Halter advised Saldutto before his first attempt. “Don’t yank it.”
The 23-year-old Canadian did his best to listen, and the result was a 253-2 (76.88) opener, the best throw of his life by 3m. It was a big moment for the kid, and according to Halter, may have altered the course of the entire competition.
“Everyone expects a couple of guys in the first flight to go 74.50 (244-5) or 75.00,” he said. “But when someone gets close to 77 (252-7), it puts a lot of pressure on the field early. It makes guys start to try, and trying too hard is death in the javelin.”
This didn’t seem to be a problem as flight 2 began and Miami’s Devoux Deysel flew one out to 268-2 (81.75). Deysel, who finished 3rd a year ago, may not have noticed Saldutto’s toss as he was busy trying to loosen up the groin muscle he’d pulled at Regionals which required “many hours” of rehab and limited him to a single throwing session over the last two weeks.
““It wasn’t really what I wanted, but I started off pretty good,” said Deysel the South African senior. “I messed it up a little bit in round 3 and hurt my back a little bit, but I’m satisfied. The points weren’t terrible, so I’m happy with it.” Deysel threw his winner off a short approach and said his groin and back troubles shortstopped his ambition to “push 85 [278-10] today.”
Florida’s Leikel Cabrera Gay also seemed impervious to the pressure, even as he aborted his opening attempt after stutter-stepping halfway through his runup. Gay simply took a breath, started over, then launched a PR 257-7…
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