Primoz Kozmus of Slovenia in action during the Men's Hammer Throw qualification on Day 7 of the London 2012 Olympic Games at Olympic Stadium on August 3, 2012 (© Getty Images)
In our preview of the men’s Hammer Throw we posed questions concerning the potential medal challenge of two giants of the event: reigning World champion Koji Murofushi of Japan, who was also the recipient of the International World Fair Play award when winning that title last summer in Daegu, and Belarus’ Ivan Tikhon (TSIKHAN), the three-time World champion (2003, 2005, 2007) who was the bronze medallist in Beijing.
The answer concerning the latter was immediately provided at the start of the qualification round, Group A when the Belarusian’s name appeared with a DNS (did not start) next to it, after the 37-year-old was withdrawn by his team.
It was not long after that that Murofushi, the 2004 Olympic champion, emphatically reaffirmed his title hopes, a 77.18m first round effort especially encouraging considering his season’s best until today had been just 72.85. The Japanese then followed up with a 78.48 in round two which surpassed the automatic qualification mark for the final by 48 centimetres.
The only other automatic qualifier from Group A was reigning Olympic champion Primož Kozmus of Slovenia, who with his first effort made 78.12. This release was a season’s best for the 32-year-old, who is back in contention for global honours after briefly retiring after taking the World title in 2009.
However the best throw of the day overall came in Group B, with the recently crowned European champion Hungary’s Krisztián Pars, last year’s World championships silver medallist, pounding out a massive 79.37 in round two.
Overall this was a very low standard qualification round. 18 men came into the competition with seasonal bests better than the 78m automatic qualification mark, and yet we only witnessed 3 throws beyond that distance today. It was also a very unbalanced round, 10 of the 12 qualifiers came from Group A.
The biggest surprises were the non-qualification of Poland’s Pawel Fajdek (no mark) - who has a personal best of 81.39 this season and two other competitions beyond 80m, and also of Belarus’ Pavel Kryvitski (71.49) who with 80.25 this year and a fifth place in Daegu 2011 had seemed a firm medal hope too.
There was some joy for Belarus, who have six athletes this year who have previously bettered 78 metres, as in the last round Valery Sviatokha with 74.69 sneaked into the final in 12th and last place. Yet for a man with an 81.49 PB (2006) that level of form can hardly be much comfort.
The Russian squad will equally be disappointed with their performances today. All three men who had been chosen for London had season’s bests better than 78m - Kirill Ikonnikov (80.71, fifth in the world), Aleksey Zagornyi (78.40), and Igor Vinichenko (78.22) – yet only two started the qualification and of these Ikonnikov with 76.85 made it into the final (6th overall) but Zagornyi with 72.52 was well below par.
Joining the three automatic qualifiers and the Belarusian and Russian aforementioned, Ukraine’s Olexiy Sokyrskiyy (77.65), and USA’s Kibwe Johnson (77.17) made the final as the fourth and fifth best overall.
Making up for Fajdek’s low form, Poland will be well represented in the final by Szymon Ziólkowski, the 2000 Olympic and 2001 World champion, who took the European bronze in July in Helsinki, and today threw 76.22 (7th overall), and should not be discounted to challenge for gold.
The others making the grade for Sunday evening’s final were Tadjikistan’s Asian Games champion Dilshod Nazarov (TJK), who is a regular finalist at world level but has a habit of finishing outside the top-8. He threw 75.91 here today (8th best). Joining him in the final are Czech Lukas Melich (75.88; 9th), 39-year-old veteran Italian Nicola Vizzoni (74.79; 10th) – he was Olympic silver medallist back in 2000 – and perhaps the greatest surprise of the day, the host nation’s 24-year-old Alexander Smith (74.71) who was 11th overall. Smith was World Youth bronze medallist in 2005, and Commonwealth silver medallist in 2010.
Chris Turner for the IAAF
The answer concerning the latter was immediately provided at the start of the qualification round, Group A when the Belarusian’s name appeared with a DNS (did not start) next to it, after the 37-year-old was withdrawn by his team.
It was not long after that that Murofushi, the 2004 Olympic champion, emphatically reaffirmed his title hopes, a 77.18m first round effort especially encouraging considering his season’s best until today had been just 72.85. The Japanese then followed up with a 78.48 in round two which surpassed the automatic qualification mark for the final by 48 centimetres.
The only other automatic qualifier from Group A was reigning Olympic champion Primož Kozmus of Slovenia, who with his first effort made 78.12. This release was a season’s best for the 32-year-old, who is back in contention for global honours after briefly retiring after taking the World title in 2009.
However the best throw of the day overall came in Group B, with the recently crowned European champion Hungary’s Krisztián Pars, last year’s World championships silver medallist, pounding out a massive 79.37 in round two.
Overall this was a very low standard qualification round. 18 men came into the competition with seasonal bests better than the 78m automatic qualification mark, and yet we only witnessed 3 throws beyond that distance today. It was also a very unbalanced round, 10 of the 12 qualifiers came from Group A.
The biggest surprises were the non-qualification of Poland’s Pawel Fajdek (no mark) - who has a personal best of 81.39 this season and two other competitions beyond 80m, and also of Belarus’ Pavel Kryvitski (71.49) who with 80.25 this year and a fifth place in Daegu 2011 had seemed a firm medal hope too.
There was some joy for Belarus, who have six athletes this year who have previously bettered 78 metres, as in the last round Valery Sviatokha with 74.69 sneaked into the final in 12th and last place. Yet for a man with an 81.49 PB (2006) that level of form can hardly be much comfort.
The Russian squad will equally be disappointed with their performances today. All three men who had been chosen for London had season’s bests better than 78m - Kirill Ikonnikov (80.71, fifth in the world), Aleksey Zagornyi (78.40), and Igor Vinichenko (78.22) – yet only two started the qualification and of these Ikonnikov with 76.85 made it into the final (6th overall) but Zagornyi with 72.52 was well below par.
Joining the three automatic qualifiers and the Belarusian and Russian aforementioned, Ukraine’s Olexiy Sokyrskiyy (77.65), and USA’s Kibwe Johnson (77.17) made the final as the fourth and fifth best overall.
Making up for Fajdek’s low form, Poland will be well represented in the final by Szymon Ziólkowski, the 2000 Olympic and 2001 World champion, who took the European bronze in July in Helsinki, and today threw 76.22 (7th overall), and should not be discounted to challenge for gold.
The others making the grade for Sunday evening’s final were Tadjikistan’s Asian Games champion Dilshod Nazarov (TJK), who is a regular finalist at world level but has a habit of finishing outside the top-8. He threw 75.91 here today (8th best). Joining him in the final are Czech Lukas Melich (75.88; 9th), 39-year-old veteran Italian Nicola Vizzoni (74.79; 10th) – he was Olympic silver medallist back in 2000 – and perhaps the greatest surprise of the day, the host nation’s 24-year-old Alexander Smith (74.71) who was 11th overall. Smith was World Youth bronze medallist in 2005, and Commonwealth silver medallist in 2010.
Chris Turner for the IAAF
