Former world champion Miréla Manjani of Greece reclaimed her title after a gap of two years on Saturday when she took the women's javelin gold with a throw of 66.52m on her fourth attempt.

Manjani's first attempt itself, 64.55m, was good enough to win her the gold because none of the other competitors came close to it, with only Russian Tatyana Shikolenko achieving 63.28m on her third attempt.

But Shikolenko, who had steadily improved over her first three attempts with 62.76, 62.99 and 63.28, fouled her fourth and couldn't quite throw well enough thereafter to threaten Manjani.

Defending champion and world record holder Osleidys Menendez of Cuba, who has a personal best of 71.54 achieved two years ago, could not quite recreate that form in Paris today and finished with a best of just 62.19m on her fourth attempt, good enough for just fifth place.

The bronze medal was claimed by Steffi Nerius of Germany, who achieved a distance of 62.70m on her second attempt.

Photograph: Getty Images