Four men have broken eighty metres in a significant improvement from Rio. Some of the sport’s most established stars face the challenge of a twenty-year-old with momentum. Could Mykhaylo Kokhan be Tokyo’s breakout star? Here’s our men’s hammer preview.

Schedule

Monday 2 August 01:00 UK Time (Qualification) Wednesday 4 August 12:15 UK Time (Final)

2021 Furthest Throws

2021 Rankings	Distance (m)	Athlete	Country
1	82.98	Paweł Fajdek	Poland
2	82.71	Rudy Winkler	USA
3	81.36	Wojciech Nowicki	Poland
4	80.78	Mykhaylo Kokhan	Ukraine
5	79.7	Quentin Bigot	France
6	79.39	Daniel Haugh	USA
7	79.27	Sean Donnelly	USA
8	79.19	Marcel Lomnický	Slovakia
9	79.06	Valeriy Pronkin	Authorised Neutral Athlete
10	78.68	Diego Del Real	Mexico

British interest

Britain has two entrants in Tokyo, Taylor Campbell and British record holder Nick Miller. Both have thrown impressively this year (78.23m and 78.07m respectively) and will aim for the final. Nick Miller has only thrown once this year and has a best of over 80 metres. If he is in that sort of shape he has genuine hopes of a medal.

The favourites

Poland have strong representation in Tokyo. Wojciech Nowicki has four major medals, all bronze, and sits third in this year’s furthest throws. Pawel Fajdek has won the last four World Championships and has to start as the favourite, that is despite never having figured in the Olympics.

Twenty-year-old Mykhaylo Kokhan beat both of them in Székesfehérvár and could be the event and Ukraine’s next big star.

One man who hasn’t been beaten is Rudy Winkler of the USA, someone who has thrown over eighty metres three times this year. Such consistency puts him well in contention for his first global medal.

Our medal predictions

1. Rudy Winkler
2. Pawel Fajdek
3. Mykhalyo Kokhan

Records

WR: 86.74m Yuriy Sedykh (1986)

OR: 84.80m Sergey Litvinov (1988 Seoul)

Featured image “Day 5 Athletics (19 Aug 2010)” by Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0