PARIS — The sporting adages ‘nothing but net’ and ‘tickling the twine’ are good things in basketball and hockey. But not so much in the hammer throw.
World-champion Ethan Katzberg of Nanaimo got his Olympics off to a near-disastrous start Friday at the Stade de France by driving his first throw directly into the netting. The Islander then went from the infield, across the track, to his coach Dylan Armstrong and the two engaged in a deep conversation. Whatever was said, it worked, as Katzberg recovered on his second throw in spectacular fashion to record the day’s best toss of 79.93 metres to qualify at the top of the field for Sunday’s 2024 Olympic Games final at 11:30 a.m. PT. The John Barsby Secondary graduate’s second throw was so dominating that there was no need for him to take his third qualifying throw and he didn’t bother, to save himself more energy for the Olympic final.
Katzberg whisked past reporters without comment after his qualifying round, perhaps indicating the pressure that is building on the 22-year-old as the gold-medal favourite as Sunday approaches. He has normally been a cool customer, cutting quite the swath with his distinctive moustache and flowing hair and six-foot-six, 236-pound body that is more angular than the usually boxy types you see in this event.
Katzberg looked on form heading Paris as his throw of 84.38 metres in April at Nairobi, Kenya was the farthest hammer throw in 16 years, since Ivan Tikhon of Belarus threw 84.51 metres in 2008, and the ninth longest of all-time. It continued his relentless climb that began with the breakthrough silver medal in the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games and continued with gold medals in 2023 at the world championships in Budapest and Pan Am Games in Santiago, Chile.
“We’re taking it day by day and just focusing on the training. We’re very focused on keeping our heads down and hoping for a good outcome in Paris,” said Katzberg, heading into Paris.
He joined the Nanaimo Track and Field Club at a young age and took part in a variety of disciplines but was always more interested in basketball and played post and forward for the John Barsby Bulldogs in high school hoops. Watching his older sister, Jessica, throw hammer at Barsby got Ethan interested in trying out the discipline. The siblings were first coached by their dad, Bernie Katzberg, a well-known track and field mentor in Nanaimo. It has turned into a pretty good move.
The 32 best men’s hammer throwers in the world qualified for the Olympic Games with 12 moving on to the final, led by two sa国际传媒 throwers, Katzberg at 79.93 metres and Chilliwack’s surprising Rowan Hamilton at 77.78. Mykhaylo Kokhan of Ukraine was third at 77.42, Rudy Winkler of the U.S. fourth at 77.29 and Eivind Henriksen of Norway fifth at 77.14. Defending Tokyo Olympic champion and world No. 2, Wojciech Nowicki of Poland, qualified 10th at 76.32 metres. The qualifying scores as scrubbed for the final and you only need to have a spot in the final to have a chance.
That was something denied veteran hammer-thrower Adam Keenan of Victoria by the narrowest of margins Friday as he placed 13th in qualifying at 74.45 metres to miss the final by just one position. It was his Olympic debut at age 30 after coming so close to qualifying only to fall centimeters short for previous Olympic Games.
“It was just another Friday. Just kidding. It was amazing for a guy who always seemed on the bubble,” said the graduate of Lambrick Park Secondary, who made sure to take in the Olympic experience.
“I’ve been to two world championships, and you looked around the stadiums in Budapest and Eugene and it was spotty attendance in patches, but you looked around here and every seat was occupied.”
Keenan was fourth and fifth, respectively, in the 2018 Gold Coast and 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games. Now he can tell his kids and grandkids he went out an Olympian: “It was the last throw of my career in a 15-year journey, and I can say it was in the Olympics, and that I left it all out there.”
GAMES NOTES: The defending Tokyo Olympic-champion Canadian women’s rowing eight, based on Quamichan Lake in Duncan, will race in the 2024 Paris Games final this morning at 1:50 a.m. PT. … The bronze medal in the 200-metre butterfly this week by Ilya Kharun, born in Montreal but raised in Las Vegas where his parents are show acrobats, was the first in the Olympics by a Canadian male swimmer since Ryan Cochrane of Victoria won 1,500-metre freestyle silver at London in 2012.
