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Should young hammer thrower Ethan Katzberg break Yuriy Sedykh’s world record, it may well happen in Budapest.
Competing Tuesday in the Hungarian capital, the 24-year-old Canadian delivered a season best, meet record and world-leading throw of 83.64 metres to win the men’s event over Germany’s Merlin Hummel (81.74) at the 16th Gyulai István Memorial.
Bence Halász of Hungary beat Katzberg last year with a then-meet record of 83.18. On Tuesday, he was competing for the 11th time at the event also known as the Hungarian Athletics Grand Prix and was third with an 81.65 effort.
Katzberg also won in 2024, one year after capturing the first of his two World Athletics Championship titles in Budapest. Sedykh’s mark of 86.74 has stood since Aug. 30, 1986.
“It was a great experience competing here [in 2023], it really started my career here. It’s always a pleasure to return to Budapest,” the Nanaimo, B.C., native said in story on the competition website, adding he believes the increasingly strong international field encourages him to continue improving.
Olympic and world champion Ethan Katzberg of Nanaimo, B.C., won the men’s hammer throw competition at the World Athletics Continental Tour Gyulai István Memorial meet, with a world leading throw of 83.64 metres.
Katzberg took charge immediately on Tuesday, throwing 82.47 for a three-plus metre lead over Halász after Round 1. He improved to 83.55 in the third round but Hummel cut into his lead with a launch of 81.74. After fouling on his fourth try, Katzberg threw 83.64 on his fifth while Hummel fouled on his fifth and sixth attempts.
Katzberg, the reigning Olympic and world champion, is the world’s top-ranked men’s hammer thrower. Four others in the top six were in Tuesday’s field at the Zsivotzky Gyula National Athletics Center: Halasz (No. 2), Ukraine’s Mykhalo Kokhan (No. 3), Hummel (No. 4) and Frenchman Yann Chaussinand (No. 6), who once held the world lead at 82.44.
Katzberg has won each of his four competitions to start the season as he prepares to represent Canada at the July 23 to Aug. 2 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland.
Watch the World Athletics Continental Tour Gyulai István Memorial meet from Budapest.
4 straight Canadian titles
The six-foot-seven athlete arrived in Budapest following a winning throw of 83.33, his previous SB, at the Prefontaine Class Diamond League track and field meet on July 3 in Eugene, Ore.
On June 20, Katzberg won his fourth consecutive national title in Ottawa (81.13).
Sport B.C.’s athlete of the tear for 2025 was among seven individual Olympic champions from the 2024 Paris Games at Tuesday’s meet.
Canadian hammer throw champion Ethan Katzberg has dominated for the last four years.
It started at the Commonwealth Games with a silver medal in 2022.
Now he’s going back to the Commonwealth Games looking for gold. Our conversation here in Ottawa pic.twitter.com/rkoNjEkq90
—Devin_Heroux
Athletes from 51 countries competed in 20 international events at the World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meet, a record in the history of the competition, first held in 2011 as the successor to the Budapest Grand Prix.
Sprinter Aaron Brown was the only other Canadian competing and placed fourth in the men’s 200 metres.
The Toronto native clocked 20.20 seconds, 13-100ths off his season best from the Botswana Golden Grand Prix on April 26. Morocco’s Yassine Hssine won in 19.92, the lone runner in the nine-man field to clock under 20 seconds.
Brown, 34, was second in the 200 last Friday at the Ed Murphey Classic in Memphis, Tenn.
Coming off his second victory at nationals in the past three years, ran a wind-aided 19.88, 1-100th behind Denzel Simusialela of Zimbabwe. He also went a wind-aided 9.95 for third in the 100.
Torontonian Aaron Brown finished in fourth place in the men’s 200-metre race at the World Athletics Continental Tour Gyulai István Memorial meet, with a time of 20.20 seconds. Morocco’s Yassine Hssine won the race, setting a new national record with a time of 19.92 seconds.
