| On six occasions between 2005 and 2012, Obergföll won medals at Olympic, World and European Championships, but never the gold. The 31 year-old German was co-favourite with reigning champion Abakumova. The Russian led after the first round of the final with 65.09. In the second round, Mickle improved her personal best from her qualifying mark of 65.73 to 66.25. Obergföll, throwing last then reached 69.05 to win the gold medal. None of the top eight improved in the second half, except for Mickle who reached 66.60 with the last throw. “Finally a champion,” Obergföll said afterwards “in the year where I didn’t really expect it, it finally happened”, and a month later she married her coach, the 1995 and 2003 bronze medallist, Boris Henry. The couple agreed that he would take her name if she won in Moscow, so they became Herr und Frau Obergföll. Abakumova’s husband Dmitriy Tarabin also became a world javelin bronze medallist, one day later in Moscow. |
