European Athletics Championships: Hummel takes silver with the hammer

Gold went to Olympic silver medalist Bence Halasz with an outstanding 84.25 meters, while Ukrainian Mychaylo Kochan secured bronze with 79.49 meters. Hummel won the first European Championship medal for a German hammer thrower since 2006, when Markus Esser celebrated bronze in Gothenburg, Sweden. His club colleague Sören Klose took a good sixth place with 78.13 meters. The Polish defending champion Wojciech Nowicki did not make it through qualification.

Hummel had a hard time there on Monday and only finished in tenth place with a poor 75.49 meters. In the final of the best twelve throwers, he started more focused and no longer competed in a tracksuit in the summer temperatures in the evening.

The 24-year-old started well with the first throw at 79.08 meters, but then two throws into the net of the throwing cage followed. In between, Hummel had completed a concentration exercise while sitting cross-legged. This finally paid off in the fifth round, when the inventor was finally able to utilize his potential and catapulted himself to silver. Halasz, who was ahead for a long time with 81.84 meters, then crowned the competition with his winning throw.