USATF Men’s Hammer — Boom! Goes The Barrier

Daniel Haugh became just the sixth American to join the 80-meter club. (KIRBY LEE/IMAGE OF SPORT)

80 METERS: Daniel Haugh achieved a long-sought goal when he shattered hammer throwing’s sound barrier with his 80.18 (263-1) opener. It assured his rise to national hammer champion status for the first time.

Haugh also became the #5 US performer all-time and improved his PB of 260-7 (79.44) set on June 3 of this year.

“My preparation’s been great,” he said after becoming the No. 5 U.S. performer ever. “Honestly it’s been better than what was indicated today.” An interesting observation, as he has now had a total of 6 throws over 79m (259-2) in his last two competitions. “I think even my fouls were in that 79-meter zone.”

“I came here to get the win and break that huge 80-meter barrier for American hammer throwers,” said a reflective Haugh as the realization deepened that he had achieved his lifelong goal. “It’s unbelievable. It’s an elite group of guys over 80m in the US.”

Is it ever. As Haugh improved his 3-week-old PR of 260-7 (79.44) he joined Rudy Winkler, Lance Deal, Jud Logan, Kibwe Johnson,and Ken Flax in that exclusive club.

“It was awesome to do it on the first throw, which was huge,” he explained. “The goal as a group of Americans is that we’re trying to get that auto-Q on throw one.”

Even though his first-round 257-0 (78.33) stood up for 2nd, multiple national champion Rudy Winkler had sought a stronger start. Dethroned as U.S. champ, this was not his favorite performance, as he followed his opener with four consecutive fouls.

“I’m not super happy with the result specifically, but I’m happy to have made the team and executed on what I wanted to do on my first throw,” he said.

Alex Young tried mightily to achieve the 254-3 (77.50) WC standard, but with his 251-4 (76.50) finished a strong 3rd nonetheless. “It’s a mixed bag of emotions,” he said, after recovering from a recent medical procedure. “Literally 3 weeks ago I was struggling to throw 65m [213-3] in practice. To come back and throw 76m [249-4] several times today was phenomenal.”

“That 8 popped up and it was an incredible feeling,” said a reflective Haugh. “This has been my life for 10 years — living it every day and dreaming of that 80-meter throw. The consistency’s there, there’s a monster throw in there — I’ve just got to keep working and it will come out.”


MEN’S HAMMER RESULTS

(June 25)

1. Daniel Haugh (TOD) 263-1 (80.18) PR (AL) (5, x A)

(263-1, 253-5, 262-4, 259-3, f, f) (80.18, 77.25, 79.96, 79.02, f, f);

2. Rudy Winkler (Tracksm/NYAC) 257-0 (78.33)

(257-0, f, f, f, f, 247-8) (78.33, f, f, f, f, 75.49);

3. Alex Young (unat) 251-4 (76.60)

(243-6, 251-4, 246-10, 250-6, 250-9, 249-11) (74.22, 76.60, 75.23, 76.37, 76.42, 76.17);

4. Morgan Shigo (Vel) 247-9 (75.53)

(f, 239-7, 247-9, 236-6, f, 244-1) (f, 73.02, 75.53, 72.08, f, 74.41);

5. Israel Oloyede (GCan) 246-5 (75.10) PR

(235-8, 240-0, 246-5, 230-7, f, 239-7) (71.83, 73.17, 75.10, 70.28, f, 73.02);

6. Sean Donnelly (adi) 243-7 (74.24);

7. Brock Eager (Iron) 242-11 (74.04);

8. Justin Stafford (unat) 239-8 (73.07) PR;

9. Tyler Merkley (PennSt) 237-1 (72.26); 10. Vlad Pavlenko (Shore) 234-1 (71.36); 11. Alex Talley (Nb) 233-2 (71.07); 12. Avery Carter (unat) 232-5 (70.84); 13. Logan Blomquist (SEMo) 232-4 (70.83); 14. Erich Sullins (unat) 230-8 (70.30); 15. Trey Knight (USC) 229-7 (69.99); 16. Johnnie Jackson (unat) 228-0 (69.51); 17. Marcus Myers (unat) 226-4 (69.00); 18. Michael Bryan (Wich) 225-7 (68.76). ◻︎

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