Olympics: Farquhar finishes ninth in javelin

Stuart Farquhar. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Stuart Farquhar ended New Zealand interest at the XXXth Olympiad this morning with a whimper.

The Te Aroha-born thrower came into the Games as a smoky for a medal after posting a personal best of 86.31m in Hiroshima, Japan, this year.

After two ordinary throws of 76.80m and 76.64m, he pushed his third throw out to 80.22m.

That put Farquhar, 30, momentarily in eighth, but by the end of the ranking round he had slipped to ninth and was denied the opportunity of three further throws.

Ninth was his best result at an Olympics.

Keshorn Walcott of Trinidad and Tobago shocked the field by claiming gold with his second throw of the night. His 84.58m effort put him out in front early and that's where he remained with Ukraine's Oleksandr Pyatnytsya claiming silver and Finland's Antti Ruuskanen the bronze.

Vitezslav Vesely of the Czech Republic, who threw 88.34m in qualifying, could only manage fourth.