Leigh Petranoff After Taking 8th in Olympic Trials: ‘So Much More in Me’

Leigh Petranoff of Cranston was happy and hopeful after taking a surprise eighth Sunday in the Olympic Trials javelin final, saying: “I know there’s so much more in me.”

Using a short approach run, the West Cranston High product threw a personal record 175 feet, 10 inches on her third try in the 12-woman field at the University of Oregon’s Hayward Field.

Petranoff, 23, thus was the last qualifier for an additional three throws in the final, conducted on the sunny final day of the 2012 Trials. Two days earlier, she had qualified 12th for the finals.

Had Petranoff finished in the top three, her throw still would have been 25 feet short of the mark needed to compete in the London Olympics.

But Petranoff, whose father competed in the 1984 and 1988 Olympics, is taking the long view—hoping to improve her leg speed, agility and technique to the point she can be a serious contender for the 2016 Olympic team, when the Summer Games are held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

In fact, she said some of her London-bound rivals told her: “You’re going to do really well later on. You have all this time left [to prepare].”

Brittany Borman won the event with a final-attempt throw of 201-9 to beat American record holder Kara Patterson, who threw 196-2.