On a muggy Sunday night in Budapest, Ethan Katzberg joined a very selective club: World Champions.
“It feels amazing. With it being my first World Championships, I didn’t exactly know what to expect, but I came in with a good mentality and it was an amazing competition,” Katzberg said.
All he had to do join the club was smash the Canadian record for the men’s hammer throw, so he did that in the qualifying round – launching the longest throw in qualifying in the process. Then he stepped into the ring and did it again.
“I knew there was going to be some great competition here. I knew I had to give it my all. My coach Dylan Armstrong told me to go for it, out of the gate. I think that boosted my confidence and I was able to get a personal best, a national record and become World Champion,” Katzberg said.
The gold medal throw flew 81.25 metres into the Hungarian evening. When it landed, he had unseated the five-time defending world champion Pawel Fajdek, he outlasted hometown hero Bence Halasz who scored his third Worlds bronze medal, and he outdistanced defending Olympic champion Wojciech Nowicki – all heroes that Katzberg has admired from afar in his young career.
“They are amazing athletes, amazing competitors, veterans of the sport. They know what they’re doing. To be able to compete with them at the highest level feels amazing,” Katzberg said.
Earlier this evening, Mohammed Ahmed finished 6th in a stacked men’s 10000 metre final with a time of 27:56.43.
World Class
Grace Konrad set a new personal best in her women’s 400 metres heat, dropping almost four-tenths of a second to 51.60 seconds to finish 5th in her heat at her World Athletics Championships debut. Her teammate Kyra Constantine was 6th in her heat, clocking in with a time of 52.28 seconds. Konrad and Constantine would not qualify for the semi-finals.
“I’m super grateful. I definitely had lots of nerves coming in here,” Konrad said. “I just wanted to try and put together a good race and it turned out to be a personal best, so I’m excited to be able to do that.”
“I feel like I’m a lot better than this, but I can’t be too upset after the year I’ve had. Not only was this year physical tough, but it was mentally tough,” Constantine said about training and competing through multiple injuries this season. “Being here and getting back up and still standing here at this line, I can’t be too upset.”
Khamica Bingham was 5th in her women’s 100 metre heat with at time of 11.29 seconds and will not progress to semi-final.
“It was a gutter for me. I felt really drained out there in the heat. I didn’t get a great start. I tried to recover, but it wasn’t my best executed race,” Bingham said. “You just have to take the lessons and use them as fuel to get better, and all eyes are set on next year.”
Django Lovett secured a season’s best high jump of 2.22 metres. The Canadian champion has been battling injuries this season and he did not move on to the final.
“Coming in, it was just a matter of whether I would be able to compete. I think mentally I was able to compete. Physically, I gave myself a shot but I don’t think my conditioning is there,” Lovett said. “
Brendon Rodney was 7th in his men’s 100 metre semi-final. His time of 10.25 seconds did not qualify him for the evening final.
“I felt better than I believed, so it’s just one of those days where you have to take it. It’s just part of the sport,” Rodney said. His focus now shifts to the 200 metres and the 4 x 100 metre relay. “Recovery is not the hard part. It’s just about mentally staying in it.”
Charles Philibert-Thiboutot was 10th in his men’s 1500 metre semi-final. His time of 3:37.41 was not enough to qualify for the final.
“It got out slower than most people anticipated. There wasn’t a lot of movement, but there was some jostling,” Philibert-Thiboutot said. “When I made a move with a lap to go, I just tried to not look back and just commit. I made it to the front pack but with 150 metres left, the wheels just fell off and I had nothing else to give.”
