Olympic silver medallist Steve Backley squeezed his way into the final of the men's javelin throw at the World Athletics Championships in Paris on Friday.
The 34-year-old Briton, who won the European Championships and the Commonwealth Games gold in 2002, qualified as one of the best losers in the heats after failing to attain the qualifying standard of 81 metres.
Competing in Group A, he could manage only 80.23 metres from his second throw after a 72.27m in his first. He fouled his third attempt.
Only five men could achieve the qualifying standard of 81m. They were Boris Henry (83.43m) of Germany, Jan Zelezný of the Czech Republic (82.88m), Russia's Sergey Makarov (82.22m), China's Li Rongxiang (81.76m) and Estonia's Värnik Andrus (81.11m), with Henry, Zelezný, Makarov and Andrus hurling the spear over the qualifying mark on their first attempt.
Following are the finalists with distances achieved:
| Boris Henry | GER | 83.43 |
| Jan Zelezný | CZE | 82.88 |
| Sergey Makarov | RUS | 82.22 |
| Li Rongxiang | CHN | 81.76 |
| Värnik Andrus | EST | 81.11 |
| Christian Nicolay | GER | 80.54 |
| Steve Backley | GBR | 80.23 |
| Aki Parviainen | FIN | 78.91 |
| Miroslav Guzdek | CZE | 77.24 |
| Andreas Thorkildsen | NOR | 79.44 |
| Alexandr Ivanov | RUS | 79.26 |
| Peter Blank | GER | 78.48 |
Photograph: Getty Images
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