Poland’s two-time defending European hammer champion Wojciech Nowicki will aim to make a little bit of athletics history on Sunday and is bidding to become just the second man to win three consecutive titles, following on from the Russian legend and world record holder Yuriy Sedykh.
Sedykh won the European Athletics Championships hammer gold medal on three occasions between 1978 and 1986, setting the still-standing world record of 86.74m on the latter occasion in Stuttgart, Germany.
Nowicki, who is also the reigning Olympic champion and will be looking to defend that title in less than two months’ time in Paris as well as having stood on the hammer podium at the last five World Athletics Championships to receive three bronze medals and then two silvers, will have in his hand the famed Ziolkowski Black Hammer supplied by European Athletics Partner Polanik.
In 2009, during a meeting between Polanik President Darek Szczepanik – son of the Polanik founder Wieslaw Szczepanik – and Poland’s 2000 Olympic hammer champion and former world champion Szymon Ziółkowski.
Ziółkowski used Polanik implements for much of his career and the pair come up with the idea of combining each other’s expertise to create a unique line of hammers.
The throwing legend was directly involved in the creation and then the testing of the hammers that bore his name which, for the first time used cutting-edge CNC engraving processes to etch the hammer heads with all the essential information including the World Athletics logo which confirms its certification and also makes it easily identifiable.
By common consent, the Ziółkowski Hammer range has been a milestone in Polanik’s history which had begun back in 1966 as a manufacturer of household items and moved into sports equipment in 1975, starting with javelins before moving into other throwing implements over the years.
An extended history of Polanik and the development of its throwing implements and many other sports products can be found here.
Twenty-nine men will be contesting the men’s hammer at Roma 2024, with qualifying rounds on Saturday and Nowicki current third on the 2024 European lists but renowned for raising his game on the big occasion, and many of them will be using implements from the the Ziółkowski Hammer range.
