After years of collecting bronze and silver medals at the European, World and Olympic level Bence Halász has finally filled his hunger for gold with a national record throw of 84.25m to take the European title.
In summary
- Halász dominated from the first round before setting a world lead in the fifth round
- Merlin Hummel took silver and Mykhaylo Kokhan took bronze
- The first podium in 16 years without a Pole and first in 10 years a Pole didn’t win
From the very first round Halász set the standard for the final, with an impressive 80.96m, while the best of the rest of his competitors sat at 78 and 79 metres.
His next attempt was his only mark below 80m, but his calm demeanour remained as he recomposed himself to soar to 81.84m in the next round.
The rest of the field battled behind him with Volodymyr Myslyvcuk holding the second spot for much of the competition with his throw of 79.42m.
But in the fifth round the field found another gear as Mykhaylo Kokhan took hold of the silver with a throw of 79.49m, but that didn’t last long as he was soon bumped into third by Germany’s Merlin Hummel who threw 81.30m.
It was a massive improvement for Hummel and he moved to just the second man in the competition to throw beyond 80m in what some of the athletes described as a difficult or changing circle.
With the German now within 60cm of the Hungarian leader the pressure was suddenly thrust upon Halász to extend his lead and inch closer to the gold.
He entered the circle, looked up to the sky and kissed his hand before readying himself at the back of the circle, with a big throw incoming.
As soon as he let go of the hammer gasps and intrigue sounded around the stadium as the implement just continued to fly further and further.
Eventually it buried itself in the ground, at an incredible 84.25m setting a world lead and national record for the 29-year-old Hungarian.
As the distance flashed up he roared in celebration, as the mark also extended his PB by more than a metre.
But his mamoth throw also marks the second best winning distance in the history of the European Athletics Championships, second only to Yuriy Sedykh's world record throw of 86.74m from 1986 in Stuttgart.
What they said…
Bence Halász: “This feels awesome. I am shocked. I was not expecting this kind of result. When I released the hammer, I was thinking, 'OK, this is a very good throw, maybe 83 metres.' And then I was shocked when I saw the result. This season was much harder than in previous years. But it was all worth it. The main factor this season was my stability. If you discount one competition in Slovakia, in each competition I have thrown over 80m, so this proved my technique was very stable before the European Athletics Championships. For sure this is the best performance of my life. But it will be very hard to overcome the excitement at my next competition. I had this feeling in Budapest in 2023 at the world championships on my home soil. But these championships in Birmingham are very close to it. I hope I will make Budapest happy again soon [at the World Ultimate Championships], It will be a big competition.”
Merlin Hummel: “I'm grateful for this moment, to start a new chapter with my coach in a successful style. My goal for this competition was to stay stable with my technique, and especially with my mental focus - that was missing in the qualification. I focused on the screen too much during the competition and when I entered the ring I saw myself - that's always an issue for me. There is so much potential, I tell you that. I will work harder every year and every month, so let's see where it goes.”
Mykhaylo Kokhan: “I'm happy to share the podium with my really good friend Bence [Halász] and Merlin [Hummel] too. It was wonderful company here. I did think today was not my day but I'm still satisfied with the medal so I will keep on working until the World Ultimate Championships. The atmosphere was good here so was the weather. It's just a shame I couldn't perform much better.”