For Immediate Release May 28, 2006 Phone: 650-345-4114
Contact: Fred Baer, USA Track & Field Pacific Association Women's Track & Field Chair
--photo note: also available are photos i took of kreiner following her record throw...f.b.
KIM KREINER SETS AMERICAN & AMERICAN ALL-COMERS JAVLIN RECORDS AT SAN MATEO
Kim Kreiner of Fresno produced the longest ever women's javelin throw in the United States Sunday at College of San Mateo, wiping out the American and the American all-comers records.
Kreiner's throw of 62 meters, 12 centimeters on her first attempt converts to 203 feet, 10 inches, and breaks her 11-day-old record of 61.79m (202-8) set in Fortaleza, Brazil (May 17).
Before that, no American woman had throw over 200 feet with the new javelin implement, which has been in use since 1999
The mark, set at USA Track & Field's Pacific Association Championships on CSM's new Mondo facility, is believed to be the first American track and field record set in San Mateo County.
The previous longest throw by anyone in the USA was 61.82m (202-10) by Irina Kharun of the Ukraine, competing for Indiana University in 2003, set at Sacramento.
An interesting witness to the record was CSM's own Olympic javelin thrower Nicole Carroll, one of the last Americans to throw over 200 feet with the old javelin. Carroll threw 62.74m (205-10) with the former implement, in 1995, before representing the USA in the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games. The International Amateur Athletic Federation changed implements prior to the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
"It helped that I only threw the old javelin for three years," the now 28-year-old Kreiner said. "The older throwers had trouble adjusting."
Kreiner didn't start throwing the javelin until her freshman year at Kent State in 1996, after an asthma condition disrupted her plans for playing college basketball. The short runs on the javelin approach didn't bother her and she already had a strong basketball shooting arm, which enabled her to adapt to the new sport quickly.
Kreiner threw 152-3 that year and placed fourth at both the Mid-America Conference Championships and at the USA Junior Nationals.
She moved to Fresno last September and trains at Fresno State with coach Ramona Pagel. Kreiner found immediate improvement this season,),
throwing 60.88m (199-9) at the Woody Wilson Classic at Davis, Calif., on April 22 to add an inch to her own three-year-old American record.
--Kreiner was one of three American Olympic throwers from Athens 2004 competing in Sunday's meet. Kristin Heaston of Palo Alto won the women's shot put at 17.25m (56-7 1/4) and Stephanie Brown took the discus at 56.76m (186-3).
