Table of Contents
Introduction
Max Dehning, 19, made headlines when he became the youngest individual ever to break the coveted 90m javelin record. The German youngster accomplished the feat on Sunday, February 25, during the Winter Throwing Championships in Halle.
Max Dehning making it to the headlines
The German teenager’s astounding feat sends a clear message to India’s golden kid, current Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra, indicating his first opponent has arrived. Chopra’s greatest throw of 87.58m won him gold in the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, and it additionally holds the national record.
However, each time the Haryana child took up the stick, he surpassed his own national record. His personal best is 89.94 metres, however falls short of Max Dehning’s achievement on Sunday.
Max currently holds the record for the longest javelin throw in both German and European U23 competitions, beating the previous mark of 89.58m achieved by Briton Steve Backley in Stockholm in 1990.
When Max Dehning’s spear left his grasp in the final match on Sunday, his coach realized he had made a spectacular throw.
Max Dehning’s second throw was 85.45m, demonstrating that his milestone toss was not a fluke and that he can compete with the big boys at the top level. Nico Cyclist achieved second in the contest on Sunday, with a best performance of 76.56 metres.
The record holder has yet to receive his ticket to Paris. The National Olympic Committee has yet to declare the results. However, there is little question that Max has met and even exceeded the entrance standards for the javelin throw at the Olympics, in addition to the European Athletics Championships 2024, that will be held in Rome, Italy in June.
While Czech Republic’s Jan Zelezny owns the entire globe record of 98.48m in men’s javelin, 30-year-old German Johannes Vetter holds the second-best throw in the world with 97.76m. Four Germans are among the top ten javelin throwers of all time, including Vetter, Thomas Rohler (93.90m), Raymond Hecht (92.60m), and Andreas Hofmann (92.0m).
This heritage of greatness creates fertile ground for future stars like Dehning, who are motivated by their predecessors’ achievements. Dehning’s feat shines even brighter in this setting, establishing him as the newest in an extensive tradition of German javelin throwers to leave an indelible impact on the sport.
To demonstrate that his initial throw was not a fluke, Dehning’s second throw reached 85.45m, sending a message to the rest of the globe that he is ready to compete. Nico Cyclist won the silver medal with a best performance of 76.56 metres.
About Max Dehning
In September 2021, he achieved a new best record in the javelin with a performance of 80.11m at Jena. At the end of the season, he departed TuS Bergen to join TSV Bayer 04 Leverkusen.
In August 2022, Dehning won a silver medal in the javelin competition at the 2022 World Athletics U20 Championships in Cali, Colombia.
Dehning won the silver medal in the 2023 European Athletics U20 Championships in Jerusalem in August 2023, throwing 78.07 metres.
Dehning became the youngest man to ever throw over 90 metres on February 25, 2024, when he made a 90.20 metre throw in the Winter Throwing Championships in Halle at the age of 19. This broke Steve.
He grew up in Leverkusen and was always interested in sports. He have played football and handball as a youngster. His older sister Marie, who participates in the heptathlon, helped him get into sports. He started throwing competitively at the U16 level and went on to win the German juvenile javelin championship.
Watch Max Dehning’s spectacular throw here :
