Further Information 

Competition Stats

AUSTRALIAN CHAMPIONSHIPS:
Shot put: 1996 - 1st (U20), 1997 - 1st (U20) 2nd (open), 1998 - 1st (open) 1st (CGT), 2000 - 1st (open) 1st (OGT), 2001 - 1st, 2002 - 1st, 2003 - 1st, 2004 - 1st, 2007 - 2nd (1st Australian), 2008 - 1st
Discus: 1996 - 1st (open)

INTERNATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS:
Commonwealth Games: 1998 - shot 7th (18.44m), 2002 - shot 1st (20.91m)
Olympic Games: 2000 - shot qual round (18.59m), 2004 - shot 7th (20.31m), 2008 - shot qual round (19.91m)
World Cup: 1998 - shot 7th (18.26m), 2002 - 2nd (20.77m)
World Junior Championships: 1994 - shot 12th (15.67m), discus qual round (45.18m); 1996 - shot 2nd (18.21m), discus qual round (48.70m)
World Championships: 2001 - shot qual round (18.70m), 2003 - 5th (20.61m)
World Indoors: 2003 - shot put 5th (20.65m)

ANNUAL PROGRESSION:

Shot put
1993    14.75m
1994    16.10m
1995    17.25m
1996    18.21m
1997    18.56m
1998    19.36m
1999    18.49m
2000    20.35m
2001    20.14m
2002    20.91m
2003    20.96m
2004    20.79m
2005    DNC
2006    19.97m
2007    19.76m
2008    20.41m

EVENTS / PERSONAL BESTS:
Discus throw: 59.10m - Brisbane, 16/02/07
Shot put: 20.96m - Brisbane, 5/04/03

RECORD(S):
National record - shot put: 20.96m - Brisbane, 5/04/03
National record - shot put (indoors): 20.69m
Commonwealth Games record - shot put: 20.91m - Manchester (GBR), 31/07/02

Interesting Facts

Justin featured in an airline advertising campaign during the 2000 Olympics. In June 2004, his coach Scott Murphy, a strength and conditioning coach with the Brisbane Lions AFL club re-located to Bath in England to work with a rugby team. 

He is the father of two girls, Holly (b Sept 2003) and Lucy (b Oct 2006).

Sporting Career

Justin Anlezark began competing at the tender age of 11 in 1987 and it became evident early on that he had above average talent in shot put. He quickly rose through the ranks as a dominant athlete and in 1994 he competed in his first World Junior Championships – where he placed 12th and was the youngest shot put athlete to make the final.

In 1996, Justin entered his second World Junior Championships ranked number two in Australia and led the competition until German Ralf Bartels took the title on his last throw. Justin continued to improve in 1997 and 1998, but injury in 1999 slowed his progress. He broke John Minns’ Australian record during the 2000 Grand Prix Series and was selected on the Australian team for the 2000 Olympics, becoming the first Australian male to contest the shot put at the Olympics for 40 years. He didn’t graduate past the qualifying rounds despite breaking the Australian record three times in as many days on the Gold Coast a week before.

Claiming his fourth National shot put title in 2001-02, he entered the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester considered an outside medal hope. He won with a PB and a Commonwealth Games record in what was Australia's inaugural shot put gold in a major championship. In September at the World Cup he surprised the world's elite with a silver medal effort of 20.77m.

At the 2003 World Championships in Paris, Justin finished fifth with a long put of 20.61m - the best ever result by an Australian male in the throws at a World Championships or Olympics. At home in Australia, Justin’s wife was due to give birth and he left immediately after his event and arrived just in time.

In February 2004 he won the Telstra Olympic Trials and his sixth National shot put title and, later that year, had the honour of competing at the ancient site of Olympia at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games. He putted well in the qualifying rounds, reaching 20.45m, but in the final registered just two valid throws after tearing a ligament in his finger in the fifth round and finished seventh. It was the highest ever result for an Australian male thrower at the Olympic Games.

Justin didn't compete domestically in 2004-05 as he recovered from the finger injury, forcing his withdrawal from the World Championships team. He resumed competition in January 2006 and threw 19.97m in Brisbane but he re-injured his finger in Canberra, requiring surgery and missing the Australian Championships and the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.

With an unwavering commitment to his recovery, Justin, though still hampered by his finger, returned to domestic competition in early 2007. Setting a new PB in his non-preferred discus event, he finished second in the shot to American athlete Christian Cantwell at the Australian Championships in Brisbane in March and neared 20 metres at the Down Under Championships on the Gold Coast in July.

At the Australian Championships in 2008, Justin threw over the 20m mark (20.21m) for the first time in three years, to take victory over Beijing bound Scott Martin (20.19m).

After throwing 20.33 and 20.41 at the Loughborough International meet, selectors nominated Justin to the Australian Olympic Committee for selection in the team for Beijing.  He will join Scott Martin making this the first Olympics since Melbourne in 1956 that Australia will be represented by two male shotputters.

Family connections

Justin’s father was a Queensland rodeo champion who just missed Commonwealth Games selection in the pistol shooting event. Justin is part-coached by his brother Lyndon.