Source: Eurosport
Kozmus hammers home his superiority
BERLIN (AFP) - Slovenia's Olympic champion Primoz Kozmus won the men's hammer title here at the world championships on Monday.[LNB]The 29-year-old - who last year gave Slovenia their first ever Olympic title - threw a maximum of 80.84 metres to beat Poland's 2000 Olympic champion Szymon Ziolkowski (79.30m) while Aleksey Zagornyi of Russia was third (78.09m).[LNB]A former high jumper, Kozmus was under pressure from the second round as Ziolkowski hurled the hammer 79.30 but the Slovenian drew on his experiences from Beijing and soon had his rivals playing catch-up.[LNB]Kozmus, who had won silver in Osaka two years ago, bettered his Polish rival's throw almost immediately to take the lead of the competition and then secured the gold with a throw of 80.15.[LNB]Relaxed, and already celebrating, Kozmus stepped up to the nets to then throw 80.84 with his final attempt.[LNB]Kozmus, who is not the first in his family to take up hammer throwing as his sister is the national women's recordholder, confessed that he had been surprised by the low calibre of the final.[LNB]"It was a little bit of a strange competition," he said.[LNB]"I do not know what was going on but everybody was so nervous and they were not throwing well.[LNB]"I expected (Hungary's 2008 Olympic silver medalist and world number one Krisztian) Pars to be very strong but it was not him at all.[LNB]"However, my throwing was very good today and I am happy that my body did not let me down at the championships."[LNB]The seemingly ageless Ziolkowski admitted that it was good to be back on the podium.[LNB]"In my history I achieved medals at international competitions for nearly a decade now," said 33-year-old Ziolkowski, who won world gold in 2001.[LNB]"The last was a bronze in the 2005 world championships. So I hope that I am coming back now and starting to win medals again.[LNB]"I hope I can still be winning medals at the 2012 Olympics and the 2013 world championships.[LNB]"I guess for Pars it was difficult to compete as the world leader.[LNB]"As for me, well I was 12th in the season's rankings and had nothing to lose."[LNB]For 31-year-old Zagonrnyi it was a novel experience after years of trying to finally get on a major championships podium.[LNB]"It may be my first major medal but I am no novice," he said.[LNB]"So I definitely came here for a medal and not just to compete. I kept my nerve when I was fourth for quite a while and that is down to the different philosophy employed by my coach, who I began with last year."[LNB]The defending champion, Ivan Tikhon of Belarussia, is absent because he is serving a doping ban after a sample collected at the Beijing Olympic Games tested positive for testosterone.[LNB]He had won the title the past three championships before Berlin and finished third in Beijing before being disqualified.
