Russian President Vladimir Putin is a noted sports enthusiast, but he took it to extraordinary lengths on Saturday prior to the men's javelin final at the world athletics championships.

Moldova-born 21-year-old Dmitri Tarabin, who was granted Russian citizenship in June 2010, was already nervous enough preparing to compete in front of an expectant crowd at Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow.

However, it was nothing compared to how he felt when the phone rang a few hours before the final.