Poland's Wojciech Nowicki takes hammer throw gold

TOKYO: Poland's Wojciech Nowicki won the men's hammer throw with a personal best of 82.52 metres on Wednesday, while his compatriot Pawel Fajdek avoided another Olympic disappointment by picking up the bronze.

Nowicki, who finished third at the 2016 Games and has three world bronze medals, was dominant from the start with an 81.18m opener, clearing more than 80 metres on his first five rounds in a show of remarkable consistency. Norway's Eivind Henriksen produced a national record 81.58m for silver.

With the year's best throw of 82.98 metres and the last four World Championships titles, Fajdek had seemed an obvious frontrunner in Tokyo.

But his two previous Olympics were memorable for all the wrong reasons, as he failed to make it past qualifying in London after fouling his first three throws and had a best throw of 72 metres in Rio. After four underwhelming attempts on Wednesday, he produced enough power for the podium with 81.53m.

The results added to Poland's medal run, after Anita Wlodarczyk won a historic third straight Olympic gold in the women's hammer on Tuesday and Malwina Kopron took the bronze. Poland also won the inaugural 4x400 mixed relay on Saturday.

Rudy Winkler had hoped to earn the United States its first hammer throw Olympic medal since 1996 after winning the U.S. trials in a national record of 82.71m in June -- the second best throw produced in 2021 -- but came up short in the final, finishing seventh with 77.08m. Agencies

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