2023 World Athletics Championships – Men's hammer throw

Ethan Katzberg arrived at these championships with a respectable personal best of 78.73m set earlier in the season. As the fourth thrower in the preliminary rounds, he threw an 81.18m National Record, while no other athlete cleared 78.50 in the preliminaries.

Five time defending champion Paweł Fajdek started off the finals with an exact 80 metre throw. With the home crowd cheering, Bence Halász took the lead with an 80.82m. Katzberg closed off the first round with an 80.18m. In the second round, Olympic Champion Wojciech Nowicki knocked his teammate Fajdek off the podium with an 80.70m. He improved that to 80.83m in the fourth round to knock Halász off the top by a single cm. In the fifth round, Katzberg jumped into the lead with an 81.25 m (266 ft 6 in). On the next throw, Nowicki improved, but 81.02m wasn't enough to get back to the lead. Neither were able to improve in the final round, but Katzberg's 81.11m would have also won the competition.

Through two days of competition, Katzberg landed 6 legal throws, all of them more than a metre longer than he had ever thrown before. He took home a World Championship and set his National Record twice. He became the first athlete from NACAC to win a medal at a Men's Hammer throw in the World Athletics Championships.^[2]

Before the competition records were as follows:^[3]

Record	Athlete & Nat.	Perf.	Location	Date
World record	Yuriy Sedykh (URS)	86.74 m	Stuttgart, West Germany	30 August 1986
Championship record	Ivan Tsikhan (BLR)	83.63 m	Osaka, Japan	27 August 2007
World Leading	Wojciech Nowicki (POL)	81.92 m	Oslo, Norway	15 June 2023
African Record	Mostafa Elgamel (EGY)	81.27 m	Cairo, Egypt	21 March 2014
Asian Record	Koji Murofushi (JPN)	84.86 m	Prague, Czech Republic	29 June 2003
North, Central American and Caribbean record	Rudy Winkler (USA)	82.71 m	Eugene, United States	20 June 2021
South American Record	Wagner Domingos (BRA)	78.63 m	Celje, Slovenia	19 June 2016
European Record	Yuriy Sedykh (URS)	86.74 m	Stuttgart, West Germany	30 August 1986
Oceanian record	Stuart Rendell (AUS)	79.29 m	Varaždin, Croatia	6 July 2002

The following records were established during the competition:

Date	Event	Name	Nationality	Distance	Record
19 August	Qualification	Ethan Katzberg	Canada (CAN)	81.18	NR
20 August	Final	Ethan Katzberg	Canada (CAN)	81.25	NR

The standard to qualify automatically for entry was 78.00.^[4]

The event schedule, in local time (CEST), was as follows:^[5]

Qualification: Qualifying Performance 77.00 (Q) or at least 12 best performers (q) advanced to the final.^[6][7]

Rank	Group	Name	Nationality	Round			Mark	Notes
				1	2	3
1	A	Ethan Katzberg	Canada (CAN)	81.18			81.18	Q, NR
2	B	Mykhaylo Kokhan	Ukraine (UKR)	76.59	78.47		78.47	Q
3	A	Bence Halász	Hungary (HUN)	78.13			78.13	Q
4	A	Wojciech Nowicki	Poland (POL)	78.04			78.04	Q
5	B	Paweł Fajdek	Poland (POL)	77.98			77.98	Q
6	B	Rudy Winkler	United States (USA)	75.37	77.06		77.06	Q
7	A	Daniel Haugh	United States (USA)	x	x	76.64	76.64	q
8	B	Michail Anastasakis	Greece (GRE)	x	73.43	75.76	75.76	q
9	B	Eivind Henriksen	Norway (NOR)	71.61	74.37	75.37	75.37	q
10	A	Gabriel Kehr	Chile (CHI)	75.10	72.88	73.63	75.10	q
11	B	Diego del Real	Mexico (MEX)	73.28	74.91	73.30	74.91	q
12	A	Adam Keenan	Canada (CAN)	74.56	72.97	73.32	74.56	q
13	B	Rowan Hamilton	Canada (CAN)	71.81	70.42	74.14	74.14
14	A	Christos Frantzeskakis	Greece (GRE)	74.05	73.30	x	74.05
15	B	Dániel Rába [no]	Hungary (HUN)	x	71.93	73.17	73.17	SB
16	A	Thomas Mardal [no]	Norway (NOR)	72.40	73.13	72.62	73.13
17	B	Aaron Kangas [fi]	Finland (FIN)	x	72.15	72.96	72.96
18	B	Serghei Marghiev	Moldova (MDA)	72.91	68.76	71.50	72.91
19	A	Jerome Vega	Puerto Rico (PUR)	71.61	x	72.87	72.87
20	B	Humberto Mansilla	Chile (CHI)	72.32	72.80	72.01	72.80
21	B	Joaquín Gómez	Argentina (ARG)	68.66	72.77	68.57	72.77
22	A	Sören Klose	Germany (GER)	72.23	x	x	72.23
23	B	Yann Chaussinand	France (FRA)	x	72.17	x	72.17
24	B	Ragnar Carlsson [sv]	Sweden (SWE)	70.94	72.02	x	72.02
25	B	Donát Varga	Hungary (HUN)	x	x	72.02	72.02
26	B	Ronald Mencía	Cuba (CUB)	71.72	70.74	x	71.72
27	A	Alexandros Poursanidis	Cyprus (CYP)	71.63	x	71.58	71.63
28	B	Mostafa Elgamel	Egypt (EGY)	x	71.36	x	71.36
29	A	Denzel Comenentia	Netherlands (NED)	69.46	x	70.16	70.16
30	A	Konstantinos Zaltos	Greece (GRE)	69.98	x	69.67	69.98
31	A	Alex Young	United States (USA)	69.10	x	67.40	69.10
32	A	Patrik Hájek	Czech Republic (CZE)	67.36	66.30	68.77	68.77
33	A	Marcin Wrotyński [pl]	Poland (POL)	67.57	x	68.65	68.65
	B	Merlin Hummel	Germany (GER)	x	x	x	NM
	A	Hilmar Örn Jónsson	Iceland (ISL)	x	x	x	NM

The final was started on 20 August at 17:52.^[8]

Rank	Name	Nationality	Round						Mark	Notes
			1	2	3	4	5	6
	Ethan Katzberg	Canada (CAN)	80.18	80.02	x	79.82	81.25	81.11	81.25	NR
	Wojciech Nowicki	Poland (POL)	79.14	80.70	78.94	80.83	81.02	80.36	81.02
	Bence Halász	Hungary (HUN)	80.82	x	x	80.59	79.94	x	80.82	SB
4	Paweł Fajdek	Poland (POL)	80.00	x	77.06	x	x	77.99	80.00	SB
5	Mykhaylo Kokhan	Ukraine (UKR)	x	77.41	79.34	78.37	79.59	79.52	79.59	SB
6	Daniel Haugh	United States (USA)	76.07	77.38	75.66	78.64	74.83	x	78.64	SB
7	Eivind Henriksen	Norway (NOR)	75.85	77.06	x	x	76.81	x	77.06	SB
8	Rudy Winkler	United States (USA)	x	x	76.04	x	75.83	x	76.04
9	Gabriel Kehr	Chile (CHI)	75.99	75.54	74.24				75.99
10	Michail Anastasakis	Greece (GRE)	74.62	73.04	75.49				75.49
11	Adam Keenan	Canada (CAN)	74.49	73.96	72.58				74.49
12	Diego del Real	Mexico (MEX)	72.39	71.84	72.56				72.56