By Neil Silver, PA Sport, Paris

Steve Backley survived a nervous wait before booking his place in the javelin final.

The 34-year-old Cambridge thrower was drawn in the first of the two qualifying groups but failed to reach the required mark of 81 metres.

That meant he was faced with an anxious two-hour wait, until the second group had completed their throws, before knowing for certain that he was through to Sunday's final.

Backley opened the qualifying with 79.27m as he pulled the javelin slightly to the left.

It was then that rain began to fall, making the runway slippery, but he managed to improve to 80.23m with a cleaner second throw.

When it came to his third and final throw, Backley looked uncomfortable on his approach as he tried to ensure he did not slip over, and his attempt fell well short of his other two, prompting him to deliberately step on the line and record a no-throw.

The sequence meant he faced a tense wait, as eight of the 10 throwers in the second group - led by Jan Zelezny the greatest javelin thrower of all time - had comfortably surpassed the 81m mark this year.

But Backley lived to fight another day despite fearing at one stage a repeat of Canada two years ago when he bombed out.

"There was a time when I was thinking back to Edmonton," said Backley.

"I came with a plan, put it into action but it did not really work. There was not much in me but I am through and that is what counts.

"Remember Fatima Whitbread was last of the qualifiers in Helsinki in 1983 but she went on to win.

"Nothing I saw out there was very scary from a competitive point of view, no-one really threw a big one, but I will need to find about five or six metres more in the final."

Backley will need to land a "big one" with Germany's Boris Henry (83.43m) leading the qualifiers from three-time champion Zelezny (82.88m) of the Czech Republic.

Backley has won European and Commonwealth titles during an illustrious career which has seen him ranked in the world's top 10 for more than a decade.

However, he is yet to strike gold in either the Olympics or World Championships and this was his last chance to put that right before retiring next year.