Norway's Andreas Thorkildsen won the men's javelin title with a huge throw of 86.50m at the Olympic Games Saturday.

Vadims Vvasilevskis of Latvia, led the competition after round one with a personal best of 84.95m, which finally earned him the silver.

Sergey Makarov of Russia, one of the favorites, finished third place following his first throw of 84.84m.

With both Jan Zelezny of Czech Republic, the world record holder and winner of the last three Olympics, and Steve Backley of Britain, a medallist in the last three Olympics, struggling with throws under 80m in round one, it was Thorkildsen again who stunned the others in round two.

The Norwegian's personal best of 86.50m could not have come in a better place than this. It destroyed the field.

Vvasilevskis had another good throw of 83.95m in round two and Makarov threw 84.32m in round six, but that was all they could offer and Thorkildsen walked away the Olympic champion passing his last two throws in the competition.

Steve Backley came back with a big season's best of 84.13m in round three, but the Briton was left out of the medals this time placing fourth.

However, Zelezny did not make it into the last three rounds this time. He was 9th with 80.59m.

Results of men's javelin final

1. Andreas Thorkildsen, Norway, 86.50 meters

2. Vadims Vasilevskis, Latvia, 84.95

3. Sergey Makarov, Russia, 84.84

4. Steve Backley, Britain, 84.13

5. Alexander Ivanov, Russia, 83.31

6. Andrus Varnik, Estonia, 83.25

7. Eriks Rags, Latvia, 83.14

8. Tero Pitkamaki, Finland, 83.01

9. Jan Zelezny, Czech Republic, 80.59

10. Matti Narhi, Finland, 80.28

11. Esko Mikkola, Finland, 79.43

12. Breaux Greer, United States, 74.36