The throw distance in javelin throwing has been explained by release parameters in many studies. Usually several athletes and a limited number of repetitions have been included in the analysis. Studies at individual thrower level, in which several repetitions has been collected, are rare. The explanation model for the official throw distance (OTD) may be different when analysed using average values of many throwers than when several throws for only one thrower are included in the analysis. This study aims to find some additional knowledge in this respect. All the throws in the current study were measured in international javelin competitions in Finland during the years of 1995-98. There were several medal winners of Olympic Games and World Championships among the subjects. Throws more than 75 m of distance for men and 55 m for women were selected for this study. A computerised photocell gate (PG) system was used to measure totally 159 throws of 26 males and 98 throws of 15 females. PG consists of two photocell based infrared walls (2.0 m and 2.5 m height) at a 2.0 m horizontal distance (50 kHz sampling frequency and a 15 mm vertical resolution). The release parameters included release speed (RS), release angle (RA) and angle of attack (AA). The official results for men varied from 75.00 to 87.82 m and RS from 25.55 to 29.11 m/s. The women´s official results varied from 55.00 to 66.00 m and RS from 21.85 to 25.56 m/s. At the group level, the correlation coefficient between OTD and RS was .71 both for men and women. Linear regression analysis revealed that among men the release parameters accounted for 54 % and among women 62 % of the variance in OTD. When analysed for individual throwers, the release parameters explained from 56 to 85% of the OTD among women and from 59 to 96 % among men. The present results suggest that the explanatory power of various release parameters on the OTD may be different for individual throwers than for a group of javelin throwers. In addition, correlation and regression analysis revealed that among elite javelin throwers the RS was the best release parameter to predict the throw distance.
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