By Aaron Heisen for the University of Oregon SOJC Track Bureau
After throwing 78.91 meters on his first attempt, Rudy Winkler found himself in silver medal position in the men’s hammer throw final at the World Athletic Championships.
However, after a flurry of throws by his competitors that breached the 80-meter mark in the second round, Winkler dropped into fifth. Instead of trying to match those marks, he held in the remainder of his energy for his final two attempts.
In sync with the uproar of the Hayward Field crowd, Winkler unleashed a loud grunt on his fifth attempt. At 78.99m, it was his longest throw of Saturday’s competition, yet it still fell short of the leaders — Pawel Fajdek, Wojiech Nowicki and Eivind Henriksen.
“If I gave the same kind of energy in the first three rounds that I did in the last three rounds, I think I would have gotten a couple throws over 80,” Winkler said. “I knew I had some big throws in me after that. I just had trouble connecting the same way, and then towards the end I kind of started losing the energy.”
On Saturday, Winkler finished sixth. His strategy of conserving his energy did not work in his favor.
While Winkler was disappointed about not reaching the podium, he remained positive following the meet. The World Championships falls in the middle of Winkler’s season, so he feels that he will have the chance to throw over 80 as the season progresses.
“Our U.S. Championships is very high pressure and emotional,” Winkler said. “It’s tough to do that and then, three weeks later, have to come back and do it again. If it was the last meet of the season, maybe it’d be a little different.”
If he can hit that mark, it will mean that he’s close to the level of someone like Fajdek, who earned his fifth world championship gold medal with a throw of 81.98 meters on his third attempt.
Winkler, 27, is six years younger than both Fajdek and Nowicki. The three are at different points of their career — Winkler is just entering his prime, while Fajdek and Nowicki have enjoyed numerous bouts on the world stage.
The three rarely compete against each other apart from the global-scale events, but Winkler will have more opportunities to match Fajdek and Nowicki’s greatness and reach the podium — a mark that has evaded him throughout his professional career.
“They’re both getting older. I kind of feel like I’m on the come up,” Winkler said. “That’s kind of something that I’ve been thinking about. Although they’re going to be in their 40s and going to be throwing over 80 as long as they can.”
