It would be fair to say that Poland’s Pawel Fajdek has nothing to prove. He is a two-time world and European hammer champion and one his country’s finest ever athletes.
But with all that success, could he be edging towards his greatest moment in track and field? This Friday marks the five-week countdown to the World Championships in London, where Fajdek is not only the defending champion but he is also chasing a hat-trick of crowns.
Yet, no sportsman likes an off day, particularly when they happen at what should be the peak of the summer. Fajdek has suffered that fate twice in the past five years - both times at the Olympic Games - where he followed his ‘no mark’ in qualifying in London 2012 with failure to make the final in Rio last summer.
His response was simply phenomenal as he showed once again in Ostrava on Tuesday night when he added over a metre to his world-lead by winning in a meeting record of 83.44m in the hammer, exclusive to the first night of the Golden Spike meeting in Ostrava.
It was some evening for Poland, as Fajdek’s teammate Anita Wlodarczyk was in sensational form too.
She broke her meeting record as she won with 79.72m, passing the 79m barrier on four occasions in what she called the best competition of her career.
For Fajdek, it is impossible to know the frustration an athlete would feel when things do not go their way, let alone knowing you have to wait a whole year before that grand stage welcomes you again.
But his response to finishing only 17th in qualifying in Rio - just weeks after winning the European title in Amsterdam - has left his rivals trailing in the wake of his amazing consistency and distances.
His exit from Rio was one of the big shocks of the athletics programme. He followed a foul with throws of 71.33m and 72.00m respectively in qualifying having had three fouls in London.
Now he will return to that same Olympic Stadium for the World Championships in August poised to forget the demons of 2012 - and the events of Rio - and his form is taking him there on a path of something quite special.
Fajdek’s mark of 83.44m extends his world lead from 82.40m as he broke the meeting record of 82.28m held for five years by Hungary’s Krisztian Pars, who was eighth yesterday with 74.58m.
This new world-leading mark came with Fajdek’s first throw and it is the third longest of his career, just behind his personal best of 83.93m from 2015 and his 83.48m from 2014.
The target had been set in the first round and while the others could not match, fellow Pole Wojciech Nowicki had the meeting of his life.
He finally smashed through the 80m barrier, breaking his old lifetime best by nearly two metres with 80.31m for second while Hungary’s world and European U20 champion Bence Halasz, who turns 20 on August 4 - the day the world championships start - took his PB from 76.05m to 78.85m in the last round to finish third.
Fajdek, who triumphed at the European Athletics Team Championships at the weekend, told zlatatretra.cz. “I arrived to Ostrava from Lille tired. I decided to risk the first attempt. I gave everything into it and it is the third best result of my life.”
It is quite a time for Polish hammer throwing with Wlodarczyk in a class of her own again.
The two-time Olympic champion will also be defending her world title in London and it is going to take something special to stop her from winning gold again.
Wlodarczyk already held the meeting record of 78.54m and her 79.72m came in the fourth round in a competition where she also reached out to 79.68m, 79.07m and 79.27m.
It brought first place from China’s Wang Zheng (76.25m) and Azerbaijan’s Hanna Skydan (74.25m) with Great Britain’s Olympic bronze medallist Sophie Hitchon in fourth (73.68m).
Speaking to zlatatretra.cz, Wlodarczyk, who holds the world record of 82.98m, said: “I think it was the best competition of my career. To throw over 79 four times in one competition, it is exceptional. So maybe next year I will finally break the 80 metres at my 10th visit to Ostrava.”
Anita Wlodarczyk's series in Ostrava:
— European Athletics (@EuroAthletics) June 27, 2017
75.62m
79.68m
79.07m
79.72m
76.76m
79.27m pic.twitter.com/3F4ZfIHrUw