Budapest 23 x Throws Preview: Men's Hammer Throw
By Kara Winger
Four-time Olympian, nine-time U.S. national champion, and 2022 Diamond League Final winner Kara Winger provides us with her insight ahead of the throwing competition at the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary. Who will be crowned this year’s world champions? Follow along all week for Kara’s previews before tuning in to watch the meet on NBC and Peacock (which will also have some additional streams of field event finals).
Men’s Hammer
American record holder Rudy Winkler won the U.S. national title with a throw of 259’ 4” (79.04-meters) at the 2023 Toyota USATF Outdoor Championships at Hayward Field. Photo by Logan Hannigan-Downs
Qualification Round: Saturday, 8/19 | Group A – 3am PT, Group B – 4:45am PT
Final Round: Sunday, 8/20 | 8:49am PT | Official Startlist
This event contains an athlete who has a chance to match Sergey Bubka’s World Championships individual event gold medal tally: If Pawel Fajdek wins, he will collect his sixth world title in the hammer throw. I was going to clarify – sixth straight – but Father Time kind of dictates that that would be the case with Worlds contested typically every other year, no? Just…five world golds in a row so far. Wild.
Pawel (of Poland) sits at only sixth overall of Budapest entrants with his season’s best of 78.10m, but that has not stopped him in the past: He threw a full meter and a half further than he had all season in his Eugene 2022 victory, and his wealth of experience tells his competitors to always be wary. Countryman Wojciech Nowicki (the Tokyo Olympic Champion) leads the world this year at 81.92m, and earned the Polish 2023 national title over Pawel at the end of July. When two of the best hammer throwers in the world face each other often (World Athletics states that they’ve competed a total of 123 times 😂), they likely end up on podiums together, which has happened many times for these teammates. I have a gut feeling that Nowicki might end Fajdek’s streak, but it would be so cool to see a thrower match that win record at Worlds!
American record holder Rudy Winkler is the only other athlete this season to throw beyond 80m (80.88m in May to win the USATF Throws Festival), and one of two men to take down Nowicki in competition on the year (on Polish soil, no less). His seventh place finish in Tokyo and sixth in Eugene have him on an excellent trajectory to nab a podium spot in Budapest. Rudy’s 78.99m to earn that sixth place at 2022 Worlds is an indication of how stiff the competition always is in this event, but his consistency and intentional travel to European meets this season tell me that he’s mentally prepared for the challenge.
The other thrower to beat Nowicki this year is merely 22 years old. Ukrainian Mykhaylo Kokhan won this year’s U23 European Championship, then bested the senior world leader in his next outing with 79.37m. That seed mark is his furthest mark since breaking the 80m barrier in 2021, and has him sitting third on the world list, seeking his first senior global medal.
Home crowd favorite, Hungarian Bence Halasz, finished fifth in Eugene and earned bronze in Doha in 2019, and steadily improved his season’s best throughout July, gearing up at the right time. Ethan Katzberg of Canada, Diego del Real of Mexico, and Denzel Comenentia of the Netherlands are all over 78m on the season, and there are plenty of other 78m throwers in the bunch. Watch especially for Daniel Haugh, who started his season quietly but came on strong with 77.24m at the USA National Championships, followed it up with a 77m effort in Finland, and has made the last two global finals, surpassing 80m for the first time in 2022. Fellow American and Tokyo Olympian Alex Young pulled the same veteran trick, picking up the pace of his season at nationals in Eugene to keep the momentum of his career going. I would not be surprised if he made it to the medal round.
One of my favorite things about a global championship is seeing who performs in qualifying that surprises everybody; there is no telling who from the rest of the list (or who, overall) will make it to the top 12. The automatic qualifying mark (if they hit it, they’re done for the morning) for Saturday is 77.00m, which is one meter less than the World Championships qualifying standard this season. Top 12 from qualifying, regardless of distance, will compete in the final on Sunday evening!
Rudy is ready for a (historic) medal. I can feel it. Let’s go. But also he’s just so wonderful that whatever happens is fine with me. Proud friend no matter what.