Slovenia's Kristjan Ceh competes at the 2019 World Athletics Championships in Doha (© AFP / Getty Images)
Kristjan Ceh clearly got to the next level in the 2022 season: the Slovenian giant became world champion and consistently threw over 70 metres. The discus throwing superhero will fight for the world title against his rivals in Budapest on 21 August.
Superman made it to the top of the world last year - Kristjan Ceh, who looks like one of the most popular superheroes with his framed glasses and physique, became the youngest ever world discus throw champion in Oregon in 2022.
Despite becoming the youngest world champion in the history of the event at 23, his success at Hayward Field was not unexpected. Although Olympic champion and defending world champion Daniel Stahl had the world's best result last year, the Swede could only beat his young Slovenian rival in Turku. Until July, Ceh had triumphed on the other five occasions when both were in the field.
In March, he surprised his experienced opponent at the European Throwing Cup - where he also won this year - and went on to win Diamond League rounds against him in Birmingham, Rabat, Rome and Stockholm. In those events, Ceh consistently threw around 70 metres, while Stahl's form seemed to settle more between 65-67 metres. Accordingly, he finished the World Championships final with 67.10 metres, which gave him 4th place.
Ceh, however, was able to deliver his best and with his 71.13m performance, he not only won the gold medal, but also the world championship record. He destroyed by almost a metre the record of Virgiljius Alekna of Lithuania, whose son Mykolas finished behind him as silver medallist. A month later, the 19-year-old talent surprisingly beat Ceh at the European Championships in Munich, where he finished second.
The rivalry between the two could be one of the biggest stories of 2023 in the throwing events, with Sweden's Stahl, who has dominated the event in recent years, also playing a part.
Ceh could return to Hungary in the summer with great memories, having won the Gyulai István Memorial in 2022 with a superb performance. His 71.23m throw in Székesfehérvár was just four centimetres shy of his personal best, which he could improve at the World Championships in Budapest on 21 August.
In an interview before last year's World Championships, the 2.06m discus thrower said that, like Oregon, he would not come to Budapest on holiday. "Next year's world championships will be held near Slovenia, in Hungary," he said shortly before winning a gold medal overseas.
In the 40-year history of the World Championships, only three legends have won back-to-back gold medals - Lars Riedel in the 1990s, Virgiljius Alekna in the first half of the 2000s and Robert Harting in the 2010s. Also among the World title winners is Ceh's coach Gerd Kanter, who won in 2007 and then the Olympics a year later.
Ceh has been working with the Estonian legend since February 2022 and the results of their cooperation were already visible in the last season. The fruitful work will be continued this year in Budapest. Speaking of harvesting, the athlete, who is mainly training in Estonia, is studying agriculture at the University of Maribor.
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