Canada’s world champion Ethan Katzberg won the men’s hammer at the Paris Olympics on Sunday, unblocking a mammoth jump with his first throw to secure the gold medal.
The charismatic 22-year-old from British Columbia posted 84.12m in his opening effort to leave his opponents in the entire competition at the Stade de France.
Katzberg’s brilliant throw in the first round was more than four meters further than his nearest rival, Hungary’s Bence Halasz, who took silver with a throw of 79.97m.
Ukrainian Mykhaylo Kokhan took the bronze with a throw of 79.39 m.
Katzberg is unbeaten at the tournament since securing a surprise victory at last year’s World Championships in Budapest.
He is the first Canadian to win Olympic gold in the hammer and the first North American man to do so since Hal Connolly in 1956.
Katzberg said opening his contest with a huge throw helped take the pressure off his broad shoulders.
“Going into it, I wanted to do well in the first round,” he told AFP.
“It felt really good to make it 84 and then I tried to go a bit further. Unfortunately I couldn’t get a bit more but I was really happy.”
Katzberg said he entered the competition after watching his sister compete in the hammer.
“My sister was a hammer’s throw ahead of me,” he said. “I started going to her practices and thought it looked like fun. So I took it up when I was 14 and I kind of did it for fun. It feels great to be here now with a gold medal.”
