Silver Medal in Hammer Throw at the European Athletics Championships

Bence Halász won a silver medal in the hammer throw with a great performance, far surpassing his best of the year, at the European Athletics Championships in Rome on Sunday. The Hungarian athlete was knocked off the lead in the last set by defending champion Wojciech Nowicki.

After a difficult start, the 26-year-old athlete finished second with a season’s best of 80.49m in the fourth set. The fact that he was able to throw 78.45 meters for third, while previously knowing that he was on the brink of elimination, was a greater success for him. The Hungarian hammer thrower was put in a difficult situation when his second throw of 77.99m, which put him fourth, was removed from the indoor scoreboard for competitors before the third round.

It was a very difficult situation, I had a lot of emotions in my head, tension, fear. I cannot really tell you what was going on inside me there. The fact that I did it means more to me than a medal,”

Bence Halász told MTI shortly after the event.

The two-time world bronze medalist in the hammer throw finished second behind Nowicki, as he did at the European Championships two years ago.

Halász said that in the last set he had a feeling that either the Polish Olympic champion or the then second Ukrainian Mykhaylo Kokhan would have a big shot. “You cannot write Nowicki off anyway, he is an Olympic champion, now a three-time European champion.

I am not disappointed, because if someone told me beforehand that I would win a silver medal with a throw of practically eighty and a half meters by traveling here with a personal best of 77.77 meters, anyone would have signed up for that in advance, including me.

I think I can be absolutely proud of that result; we did what we came here to do. If I had finished one better than that, it would have been the icing on the cake that nobody would have eaten,” he said laughing.

Looking ahead to the upcoming Paris Olympics, Halász is hopeful about his performance at the European Championships, but stressed that he still has a lot of work to do before the Games. “I think it is encouraging for the Olympics. Of course, we still have to work on being a bit more stable. You have to see that it has only been two weeks since the competition in Budapest, where I got 77.77 and I think we have come close to a miracle in two weeks. If I can stabilize these results around 80 meters now, I can go up another two meters from here,” said Bence Halász.

Via MTI, Featured image: Facebook/Magyar Atlétika – Hungarian Athletics