Nanaimo’s Ethan Katzberg has won gold in the Men’s Hammer Throw at the Olympics.
He did it with his very first throw, a staggering 84.12 metres, just a few centimetres shy of the all-time Olympic record from 1988 set by Sergey Litvinov from Russia.
It’s the first time in Olympic history a Canadian has won the event.
None of the other competitors could crack the 80-metre line. Hungary’s Bence Halasz came close, with a throw of 79.97 metres that bumped him up from bronze to silver.
The gap between Katzberg’s gold-medal throw and Halasz’s throw was more than four metres, the largest recorded since the 1920 Olympics.
Ukraine’s Mykhaylo Kokhan was the bronze medal winner, with a throw of 79.39 metres.
Katzberg’s winning throw was just shy of his personal best, 84.38 metres, set earlier this year.
The athlete is 22 years old. He was born in Nanaimo and trained at the Nanaimo Track and Field Club.
After high school he moved to Kamloops to train with coach Dylan Armstrong, who won bronze for Canada at the 2008 Olympics in shot put. He also received training from Dr. Anatoly Bondarchuk, who won gold in the hammer throw for the Soviet Union at the 1972 Olympics.
Thomas says Katzberg’s rare combination of speed and height — he’s just two centimetres shy of two metres, or six-foot-six — gives him an advantage.
Katzberg took the world champion title last year, and also took gold at the Pan-Am games in Chile this past November.
