Krisztián Pars defends his title at the Pál Németh Memorial in Szombathely (© Pál Németh Memorial organisers)
The competition in Daegu will be doing well to match the drama of the one which took place at the last World Championship. Two years ago, Slovenia’s Primoz Kozmus secured a gold medal to go with the one he had won at the previous year’s Olympics thanks to a relatively conservative effort of 79.74m.
But he finished with a final flourish of 80.84m, his season’s best, to prevent the final from having the lowest winning mark in the history of the Championships.
In the lead up to Berlin, it seemed that Krisztian Pars was likely to become the first Hungarian to win a World Championship gold in the hammer. The Olympic silver medallist from Beijing had put together a run of 18 victories en route to Berlin.
In the end, however, he was unable to match the previous best achievement by a Hungarian thrower at the World Championships – the silver medal earned by his former training partner Zsolt Nemeth in 1999 – as he was knocked out of bronze medal position in the final round, eventually finishing fourth.
Pars’ disappointment was the greater for the fact that he had been determined to do well in Berlin in order to honour the man who had coached both him and Nemeth, Pal Nemeth, who had died earlier in the year.
The man who displaced Pars from the podium at the last was Aleksey Zagornyi, although he had not been widely tipped for a medal given that he had failed to progress through qualifying on his three previous appearances in a global championship, and had also finished an ignominious eighth in the recently held European Team championship.
Two years on, however, the 33-year-old Russian found himself in a very different position as the next global championships loomed on the horizon – he dominates this year’s world list with seven of the top 15 throws, including the top four, of which his effort of 81.73 at the Yerino meeting on June 4 was the best.
The perfect preparation for the 33-year-old to secure the first big gold of his career. But, cruelly, according to reports, Zagornyi has been prevented from taking his place in the Russian team for Daegu because of a back injury.
That withdrawal means that Pavel Kryvitski of Belarus, who was eight in the Berlin final, will be the man with the best 2011 throw competing in Daegu, the 80.67m he recorded in Minsk on 11 August.
Kryvitski is clearly running into form at the ideal time. But he looks likely to be pressed by a group of other throwers including Kibwe Johnson of the United States, who has done 80.31m this year, Italy’s Nicola Vizzoni, who has thrown 80.29m, and Markus Esser of Germany, who is the sixth furthest thrower this year with an effort of 79.69m achieved at the Leichlingen meeting on 9 April.
There is also likely to be a challenge from the man one behind Kryvitski in the 2011 list – Krysztian Pars. The Hungarian is also showing good form at a good time, having reached out to 80.63m at the meeting in Szekszard on 7 August.
Perhaps a medal, and maybe a golden one, will be within his grasp this time.
Slovakia’s European champion Libor Charfreitag, with a 2011 best of 77.69, could also figure in the mix for the medals.
But then there is the figure of Kozmus to consider. Having made an unexpected decision to retire in 2009, but returned to competition last year with a main focus upon defending his Olympic title in London 2012. He has told reporters in Slovenia that his goal for Daegu is to make the final.
His 2011 best – 77.17m at Celje on 8 June, is well down the lists. But a man with Olympic gold and World gold and silver should never be discounted. Perhaps Pars is about to be disappointed once again...
Mike Rowbottom for the IAAF
