It has taken years of competition and training for Newberg natives Cyrus Hostetler and Rachel Yurkovich to make their Olympic dreams a reality, so a few bumps along the final stretch of road before the London Games haven’t been enough to deter them from seizing the once-in-a-lifetime experience.

   
Both javelin throwers fell short of their own expectations at the Olympic Trials but still qualified for the Games because each had already hit the Olympic ‘A’ standard.

Both were unhappy about their performances at recent tuneup meets in Europe, but they are now completely focused on leaving everything they have on the runway in London.

“(The) plan of attack is the same one I have had all year long,” Hostetler said. “I go 100-percent no fear, balls to the wall, no holding back, because there is nothing bigger.”

Hostetler hurt his knee on his third throw at the trials and fought to gain entrance into the Herculis Diamond League meet in Monaco July 23. He then spent a day and a half in transit just to arrive in time for the competition.

The result was an underwhelming, but not altogether discouraging, best mark of 245 feet, 5 inches that placed him last out of seven competitors.

“It’s hard on your confidence, going into the biggest meet of your life and the last two meets were subpar to your own standards,” Hostetler said. “But I know if I were healthy and did not have travel like in Monaco everything would be fine and I would have thrown far at both meets. And the good news is I am healthy and I don’t have any travel now that I am in the athlete village in London.”

Hostetler did most of his training over the last month in Denmark, the native country of his coach, Christina Scherwin, and arrived in London on Saturday.

Training abroad allowed Hostetler not only to focus on training without any of the distractions he might encounter at home but also to get acclimated to the weather, the time change and the food in Europe.

    “It’s not like riding a bicycle, where you can just pick it up after being off for a couple weeks and throw far,” Hostetler said. “You have to maintain and keep working on things constantly. We (my coach and I) have seen training and competition video footage and we are always honing my ability.”

Yurkovich said she was unhappy with her performance at a couple of European meets in July but is pleased with her training, which she did mostly in Denmark, as well, before joining the U.S. team camp in Birmingham, England.

“It’s going well,” Yurkovich said. “I have my coach (Don Babbitt) here with me now, so it’s getting better and better. I feel good. I feel confident.”
    Both participated in the Opening Ceremonies and have taken advantage of the opportunity (athletes receive free admission to events) to attend a least a few other competitions, but they have been forced to balance experiencing the bigger-than-life atmosphere around the Olympic Village with accomplishing their ultimate goals.

“I’m going in and giving it my all,” Yurkovich said. “I have zero pressure on me. Obviously, I would like to make the final and do all of that, but I just hope that I can compete well and hold my own. I’m going out there with no expectations and giving it everything I’ve got.”

Yurkovich will compete in preliminaries at 2 a.m. PDT Tuesday, after which the top 12 of 33 competitors will advance to the finals at 2 p.m. Thursday.

The men’s preliminary round kicks off at 11:05 a.m. Wednesday, followed by the finals at 1:20 p.m. Saturday.

Because javelin is not a high-profile sport in the U.S., it is not scheduled to be part of NBC’s television coverage, but all events can be streamed live online at www.nbcolympics.com 

By Seth Gordon, Newberg Graphic