Merlin Hummel kissed his silver medal and then showed the muckis with the Germany flag behind his back. He celebrated the first medal of a German hammer thrower at World Athletics Championships for 20 years – and already the third German at the World Cup in Tokyo.
The 23-year-old hurled his throwing device to the personal best of 82.77 meters and only had to give up Olympic champion and defending champion Ethan Katzberg from Canada.
“I don’t even know what to say. I tried to do a good job – and worked,” said Hummel about his silver coup. “I have dreamed of the day. I have been dreaming of the competition for days and visualize it automatically.”
Hummel shocks all out of Katzberg
Before the eyes of his little brother Matti, who is also a hammer thrower, Hummel hooded his best attempt in the first round. “Whether he shocked the competition will still turn out,” said Hummel’s coach Martin Ständner after the attempt. The brilliant performance of his protégé has already been indicated in training, the coach continued.
“I actually wanted to make the first throw relaxed, and then I noticed: Oh, I catch it quite well – and then I gave in power. And then it just flew wide,” said Hummel.
Except for Katzberg, the competition actually seemed shocked. While the Canadian set up the winning width and a championship record of 84.70 meters unimpressed by Hummel’s attempt, the other opponents had no response to the Hummel hammer. Even the favorite Hungarian Bence Halasz, who finished third with 82.69 meters.
Hummel one of the faces of a young generation
Hummel is one of the faces of a young and hopeful German athletics generation – and the first to climb the podium at a major event at a major event.
Hummel was already in good shape in the pre -fight. At 78.54 meters, he loosely exceeded the necessary qualification width in the first attempt. “We will do the very long throws tomorrow,” Hummel announced on Monday. No sooner said than done.
First World Cup medal for German hammer throwers since 2005
With his medal, Hummel kissed the German men’s hammer throwing out of the Sleeping Beauty sleep. In the course of this year, he was the first German for 18 years to crack the magical 80-meter mark. Markus Esser won the last World Cup medal in 2005 in Helsinki. He finished third at the time. Karsten Kobs secured the last German World Cup title to date in Sevilla in Spanish.
Last year Hummel just missed the podium at the European Championships in Rome. He completed the Olympic Games of Paris 2024 as tenth.
With a Ki app to success
Hummel not only relies on his strength. He studies artificial intelligence (AI) at a distant university – and the topic of AI also plays a major role in his athlete life. Because the native Franke has developed an app with which he can analyze his throws in order to work on small details. In addition, he has completely laid out his diet on sport, eating six eggs every morning.
For the German Athletics Association, the Hummel precious metal is the third medal at the World Championships in Tokyo. Previously, long jump star Malaika Mihambo and sensational also Amanal Petros in the silver marathon.