Stuart’s Spear of Destiny

13 August 2013

Stuart Farquhar has been one of the mainstays of the New Zealand team for the best part of a decade and will start his World champs on with the qualifying round on on Thursday evening (NZ time). Steve Landells speaks to the Hamilton City Hawks javelin thrower about his journey to the top and why Moscow could just see the best performance of his career.

Quietly-spoken and modest, Stuart Farquhar is not a man prone to rash statements. So when the 13-times New Zealand javelin champion says “it burns” that he missed out on the gold medal at last year’s London Olympic Games we should take his comments very seriously.

Not that the Hamilton man performed without credit in ‘The Greatest Show on Earth.’ He placed a highly respectable ninth, his best ever finish at a global championships (Olympics or World Championships), it was just that having recorded a personal best of 86.31m in Japan earlier in the year and with Keshorn Walcott the shock javelin gold medallist of Trinidad & Tobago recording 84.58m there was a distinct sense of what if for the 1.86m thrower.

“There was mixed emotions,” explains Stuart reflecting on his third Olympic Games. “Coming ninth was not too bad. I only just missed out on a top eight and if I had a further three throws I think I could have sneaked a few more positions because I was just starting to get into my rhythm. I always knew that if I nailed a good throw at the Olympic Games, hit the sweet spot, I’d definitely win a medal. So going to the Olympics and knowing it was won with an 84m throw. It puts into realism I could and should have won the Olympics, which would have changed everything.”

Now with the World Championships in Moscow upon us, the father of two has the chance to purge the frustration of 2012. It represents another chance for ‘New Zealand’s Mr Javelin’ to make his mark on the global stage. It is not one he intends to miss out on.

Born in Te Aroha, Stuart knew from a young age throwing acorns and pinecones on the family farm and also the cricket ball at school he had a talent for throwing. His father was a decent sprinter ‘who never quite made Commonwealth Games level’  but Stuart found his genetics were better suited to the javelin.

As a schoolboy, he showed flair on the cricket field as a gifted fast bowling all-rounder on the cricket field and made representative age-group team for the Northern Districts.

He once recorded bowling figures of 8-15 and recorded 12 centuries one season as a batsman with a best score of 204.

Aged 16 he faced a choice cricket or javelin, but the lure of representing his country at the Olympic Games proved too tempting.

“I had to make a huge decision or which way to go,” explains Stuart candidly. “I chose javelin over cricket because I wanted to go to the Olympic Games and do the best as I could as an individual. I was not motivated by money. It was truly that desire of the Olympics Games. I’d also gone to the World Junior Championships in 1998 in Annecy. It was a pretty cool experience. I’d finished 14th competing with a stress fracture of the back. It gave me hope I could be competitive.”

The decision proved a correct one and now aged 31 he can look back on a distinguished international career in which he has made three Olympic appearances and won silver medals at the 2009 World University Games and 2010 Commonwealth Games. Yet he desires more and the immediate goal is Moscow.

Juggling married life with two children – Tyler, 6, and Mason, 2 - can present its difficulties. He prefers to limit his time competing overseas to several small blocks and explains the difficulty of balancing training, family life and studying 18 hours a week for a Diploma in IT at Wintec as “hard.”

“My wife (Leone) is a lawyer and works long hours,” he explains. “I pretty much do the drop off and pick up at school and kindy and train around this. I just have to make sure my timetable is right and I manage things well. It’s hardest for my wife, as when I go away the pressure is on with the kids and working. We do have quite a bit of support from my mum and dad and my wife’s parents as well. I’m quite lucky to have that support. It has allowed me to carry on for as long as I have in the sport.”

As for this season his performances internationally have been respectable rather than spectacular. His best throw of 81.07m achieved in April in Melbourne – more than five metres down on his lifetime best – ranks him only 39th in the world this year.

Yet Stuart insists this does not tell the full story. He has faced an unfortunate run of competing in “unfavourable conditions” and the way he competed in his last two meetings where he finished sixth and third at the Birmingham and Lausanne Diamond League meetings suggests he can mix it with the best in the world.

Which brings us on to Moscow, and his hopes and expectations for what will his fourth crack at a World Championships. First up he faces the qualification on August 15 before a potential final on the morning of the August 18.

“Qualifying is quite stressful for a lot of throwers and is a lot harder than the final,” he explains. “We only have three throws to make the top 12 (and qualify for the final) and the top 12 standard is around 82m. They are probably 30 to 40 throwers in the competition and 80 per cent of them can make the final. When it comes to qualifying, I just have to be confident and hope for a big first throw to put the pressure on.  I hope then to repeat the process in the final. Throw a big one out early to cement my spot up the ladder. I definitely want to make top eight, and if I make the top eight, then any of the top eight are capable of winning a medal.”