Krisztian Pars in Kuortane (© Paula Noronen)
With an impressive streak of 18 victories behind him, Olympic silver medallist Kristián Pars goes into the World Championships as the favourite to take the gold medal in the hammer. The former World youth champion from Hungary possesses eight of the 10 best throws in the world this year and leads the world with his 81.43m season’s best.
Despite their continual strength in the event, a Hungarian athlete has never won world gold in the Hammer Throw, although Pars’ former training partner Zsolt Németh came close 10 years ago with silver in Seville. Their long-time coach, Pal Németh, passed away at the start of this year, and no doubt Pars will be fired up to finally win the World gold medal that had previously eluded Németh’s athletes.
The men who beat Pars in Beijing, Primoz Kozmus of Slovenia, has not quite been in the same form as he was last year, and he has been beaten by Pars on all four occasions in which they have clashed this season. But as the world silver medallist and an 82.30m thrower at his best, Kozmus can never be discounted.
Belarus continues to be a force in the hammer, and their leading hope this year is Yuriy Shayunov. The 21-year-old has improved to 80.72m this year and was victorious at both the World University Games and the European under-23 Championships. In the top two in all of his competitions this year, Shayunov could be Pars’ biggest threat in his quest for gold.
Pars aside, Russia’s Aleksey Zagornyi is the only other athlete to have twice thrown over 80 metres this year. His championship record, however, is far from convincing – in all three of his previous global championship appearances, he has failed to make it through qualification, and at this year’s European Team Championships he finished a distant eighth with his worst performance of the year. Igor Sokolov earlier this year became the first Latvian to break 80 metres, but like Zagornyi has never made it to a global championships final.
World junior record-holder Olli-Pekka Karjalainen has not quite been able to recapture his sparkling form of 2002 and 2004, but in the past three years he has produced his best throws of the year in championship finals. Should he manage to do the same again in Berlin and come close to the 80-metre barrier, the Finnish record-holder could find himself in the hunt for medals.
Italy will field two 79m+ throwers in Marco Lingua and Nicola Vizzoni, but the last time either athlete made a global championship final was four years ago. Other athletes in with a shot include Ukraine’s Artem Rubanko (79.69m this year), Belarussian Pavel Kryvitski (79.48m SB), and Dilshod Nazarov of Tadjikistan, who set a PB of 79.28m earlier this year and has been in impressive form on the circuit. Not forgetting, of course, the ‘old guard’ – former world champion Szymon Ziólkowski, former Olympic champion Koji Murofushi, and world bronze medallist Libor Charfreitag, all capable of breaking 80 metres at their best.
Jon Mulkeen for the IAAF
Despite their continual strength in the event, a Hungarian athlete has never won world gold in the Hammer Throw, although Pars’ former training partner Zsolt Németh came close 10 years ago with silver in Seville. Their long-time coach, Pal Németh, passed away at the start of this year, and no doubt Pars will be fired up to finally win the World gold medal that had previously eluded Németh’s athletes.
The men who beat Pars in Beijing, Primoz Kozmus of Slovenia, has not quite been in the same form as he was last year, and he has been beaten by Pars on all four occasions in which they have clashed this season. But as the world silver medallist and an 82.30m thrower at his best, Kozmus can never be discounted.
Belarus continues to be a force in the hammer, and their leading hope this year is Yuriy Shayunov. The 21-year-old has improved to 80.72m this year and was victorious at both the World University Games and the European under-23 Championships. In the top two in all of his competitions this year, Shayunov could be Pars’ biggest threat in his quest for gold.
Pars aside, Russia’s Aleksey Zagornyi is the only other athlete to have twice thrown over 80 metres this year. His championship record, however, is far from convincing – in all three of his previous global championship appearances, he has failed to make it through qualification, and at this year’s European Team Championships he finished a distant eighth with his worst performance of the year. Igor Sokolov earlier this year became the first Latvian to break 80 metres, but like Zagornyi has never made it to a global championships final.
World junior record-holder Olli-Pekka Karjalainen has not quite been able to recapture his sparkling form of 2002 and 2004, but in the past three years he has produced his best throws of the year in championship finals. Should he manage to do the same again in Berlin and come close to the 80-metre barrier, the Finnish record-holder could find himself in the hunt for medals.
Italy will field two 79m+ throwers in Marco Lingua and Nicola Vizzoni, but the last time either athlete made a global championship final was four years ago. Other athletes in with a shot include Ukraine’s Artem Rubanko (79.69m this year), Belarussian Pavel Kryvitski (79.48m SB), and Dilshod Nazarov of Tadjikistan, who set a PB of 79.28m earlier this year and has been in impressive form on the circuit. Not forgetting, of course, the ‘old guard’ – former world champion Szymon Ziólkowski, former Olympic champion Koji Murofushi, and world bronze medallist Libor Charfreitag, all capable of breaking 80 metres at their best.
Jon Mulkeen for the IAAF
