Great Britain's Goldie Sayers competes in the women's javalin final during Day Seven of the IAAF World Athletics Championships at the Daegu Stadium in Daegu, South Korea.

British record holder finishes 11th in Korea

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GOLDIE SAYERS believes anxiety played a part in her failure to win a medal in the World Athletics Championship javelin final.

Cambridge-based Sayers finished eleventh in Friday’s final in Daegu, South Korea, with a best throw of 58.18 metres, six metres down on her personal best.

The 29-year-old said she was “devastated” at the way the competition panned out.

“I think my conclusion was that I just tried way too hard. I knew there was a medal up for grabs in the final and I just got over anxious and kind of forced things which you can’t do in the javelin,” she said.

“Maybe I didn’t notice the signs that I was too excited. My plan was to get a big throw in the first round and when that didn’t happen, I didn’t panic but it wasn’t an ideal start.”

Sayers best throw of the season is 64.46 metres, but even a repeat of that would only have guarenteed the British record holder fifth place. Russia’s Maria Abakumova took gold in what was a highly-competitive final, battling all the way with eventual silver medallist Barbora Spotakova.

Having battled back from two freak injuries suffered earlier in the year, Sayers remains confident she will be in good shape for London 2012.

“I am old enough to know you can turn things around and next year I can have a great day. I do tend to perform well at Olympics rather than World Championships so hopefully I can put these things right for next year,” she said.

“There are positives to take but unfortunately with sport the kind of beauty and the hardship of it is that you have to be good on one day a year.”

*Aviva’s support, both at home and abroad, is helping the Aviva GB&NI Team at the World Championships in Daegu, Korea, prepare to compete at their best. To find out more, go to aviva.co.uk/athletics or @AvivaAthletics on Twitter.