THE TATTLE OF HASTINGS: The Katzberg Job

In those seven events, the silver medallist finished an average of 3.66 metres behind Katzberg, who began the season with a heave that solidified his position as gold-medal favourite for the Olympic Summer Games in Paris.

Katzberg, who turned 22 in April, dismantled his own Canadian record and posted the ninth-longest heave in the history of men’s hammer throw at the Kip Keino Classic on April 20 in Nairobi, Kenya.

He launched the implement 84.38m — the longest throw in the world since 2008, when Ivan Tikhon of Belarus threw 84.51m.

“I think I was just ready to throw,” Katzberg told CFJC Today last week before a training session in the throws area adjacent to Hillside Stadium.

“It was a lot of training through the winter and hard preparation. With so much training, sometimes all you want to do is compete, so I got really fired up for that competition and I think it just connected well that day. I was really happy with it. A bit of a surprise, but it definitely pumped me up for the season.”

Katzberg devoured the meat of his 2024 schedule, winning on May 18 in Poland, May 22 in Norway, May 24 in Slovakia, May 25 in Germany, May 26 in France and June 1 in Taiwan.

“I didn’t do much other than rest or compete,” Katzberg said. “It was a big blur. I mean three countries, three days, three events was kind of the crux of the competition season and I’m happy I could get through unscathed.”

Added Armstrong: “I’m not going to make it too easy for him. I set the training up like that, the competitions like that. For sure, it was a grind, but he definitely went beyond my expectations and did an amazing job. That was no walk in the park.”

Time on the road together has been ample since Katzberg moved to Kamloops in 2020 to train with Armstrong and under the supervision of throws legend Dr. Anatoliy Bondarchuk.

Armstrong was asked if Katzberg has any interesting quirks.

“He’s pretty particular in certain things, with his hammers and how they’re set up and how he packs his bag when we go to Europe,” Armstrong said. “He is always worried, weirdly enough, about how much weight is going to be in his luggage because he never wants to be overweight.”

Sixteen-pound hammers can be costly at the airport.

“You’re travelling with up to 20 kilos of steel all the time,” Katzberg said. “You’ve just got to be careful. You don’t want to gouge the wallet too much, you know?”

The 1972 Olympic champion hammer thrower Bondarchuk developed a periodization training system that is tailored to athletes individually, methods that incorporate stimulation and adaptation through central nervous system training.

Bondarchuk settled in Kamloops and coached a stable of high-performance athletes, including Armstrong.

English is not his first language, so he used hand gestures, grunts, body language, yelling and other rudimentary forms of communication to instruct athletes.

“You have to be there,” Armstrong said, noting the system can be complicated. “You can kind of grasp and get an idea if you read books, but you have to be in that system with him [Bondarchuk]. Being an athlete with Dr. B, it just enhanced everything. If you’ve got a curveball thrown at you, you need to know how to react. That comes with hands-on experience.”

Astonishing improvement in Katzberg — the Olympic gold medal favourite arrived four years ago in the Tournament Capital with a PB of about 55m — suggests Armstrong has learned the keys to deciphering his mentor’s modus operandi.

Former Bondarchuk pupil Jennifer Joyce marvelled recently in a National Post article at the accuracy with which her former hammer coach could predict progress in results, noting he once told her three weeks in advance which day to expect a peak – and pinpointed the time of day it would come.

“Yeah, I’ve definitely had situations where I’m exhausted or tired and Dylan’s just like, ‘Give it a few days, three or four days.’ And then three or four days happen and I’m back to personal-best shape or something like that,” related Katzberg. “There are definitely situations like that. I’d say more than one.”

It is no accident Katzberg eclipsed the 80m mark for the first time in his career last August in Budapest, Hungary, where he set (81.18m) and raised the Canadian record (81.25m) to become the youngest-ever men’s hammer throw world champion, the youngest medallist in the event in the history of the world championship and the first Canadian male to reach the podium in the discipline at worlds.

Armstrong, using Dr. B’s system, planned it that way – and a similar scheme is in place for Aug. 4, the date of the men’s hammer throw final in Paris.

“Of course, we’re trying our best to make that happen,” Armstrong said, noting 84-year-old Dr. B is no longer involved in day-to-day training. “Right now, we’re just keeping the focus on improving in training here at home before we go to nationals and then our training camp before Paris.”

The Katzberg camp is clamping down on distractions, including limiting media engagement.

“Yeah, we already have, even a couple months out,” Armstrong said. “But I think it’s very important to promote what we’re doing and the club here in Kamloops and get some of this out into the community because I think it’s a good buildup to Paris.”

Hammer throw does not grasp the attention of the public in North America quite like it does in Europe, said Armstrong, but victory at the world championship, the run of dominance in 2024 and potential for Olympic gold is boosting Katzberg’s profile.

The 6-foot-6, 235-pound moustached man with the Viking visage is marketable.

“[NCAA champion hammer thrower] Rowan Hamiton says I copied him, but that’s just an old tale,” Katzberg said with a laugh. “Some people say we look the exact same. It’s unbelievable how close we came into the look. I don’t know who did it first, but I’m sticking to my story. He copied me. Sometimes, they use a photo of him and talk about me and vice-versa. Some people call us brothers.”

Katzberg is sponsored by Adidas (he opted not to reveal compensation) and athletics company Nishi, which supplies his hammers. The implements cost about $1,500 apiece.

“Ethan’s super laid back and I think that really helps him in high-pressure situations,” Armstrong said. “He’s got a laid-back attitude and he’s a super positive guy.”

Don’t expect Armstrong to resort to wild motivation antics on the morning of Aug. 4 — no frothing-at-the-mouth speeches, chair-throwing displays or Neanderthal chest banging.

“Not my style, no,” Armstrong said.

“It doesn’t do it for me,” Katzberg said when asked if he’s expecting some sort of Al Pacino, Any Given Sunday speech during the Olympics.

“He wants to, but knows for me that doesn’t work too well. He pushes me in a way that I need to be pushed.

“He’s very intense and very focused and driven. I’m pretty calm and relaxed, so him pushing me to be a little more intense and me pushing him to be a little more relaxed I think works really well in the competition setting and in training, as well. It’s kind of a yin and yang.”

Armstrong does not consider Katzberg’s personal life part of his coaching purview – and that includes any sort of advice on intimate activity prior to the Games – unless it becomes damaging to his performance in the circle.

“That’s his personal life and he’s very regimented and disciplined, so as long as it doesn’t affect training, then I’m fine,” Armstrong said. “It’s when it does affect anything, then yeah, for sure, I would step in as a coach.”

Grooming advice seems to be fair game, though.

“I don’t shave my face the day before a competition,” Katzberg said. “Dylan told me the first week I moved here, ‘I never shaved the day before.’ I haven’t and it’s been working out so I’m not changing it.”

Armstrong, who confirmed day-old stubble is not part of Dr. B’s periodization methodology, appears to caution his pupil not to talk publicly about specific goals and numbers, but they are impossible to ignore with the Games approaching and Katzberg infringing world-record territory.

Yuriy Sedykh holds the mark, with a throw of 86.74m for the Soviet Union at the 1986 European Championships in Germany.

“I mean, he’s the best,” said Katzberg, whose personal best is 2.36m short of the world record. “He’s the greatest to ever do it. Yeah, it’s in the back of my mind. If it happens, it happens, but I’m not really too worried about it. I’m just trying to do what I can do to get better.”

Lineage adds to intrigue that begs questions.

Katzberg is coached by Armstrong, who was coached by Bondarchuk – who coached Sedykh.

“Yeah, for sure I’ve thought about that,” Armstrong said. “We’ll see what happens in the next few years. It would be fun to keep the growth going and maybe we’ll see something special happen.”

THE RESULTS

Below are Katzberg’s results from seven World Athletics Continental Tour competitions this season, with the second-place finishers’ marks in brackets.

April 20, Kenya, 84.38m (Mykhaylo Kokhan of Ukraine, 80.76m)
May 18, Poland, 79.12m (Pawel Fajdek of Poland, 77.23m)
May 22, Norway, 81.98m (Bence Halasz of Hungary, 75.81m)
May 24, Slovakia, 79.66m (Volodymyr Myslyvcuk of Czechia, 75.97m)
May 25, Germany, 80.10m (Merlin Hummel of Germany, 78.11m.)
May 26, France, 80.12m (Yann Chaussinand of France, 79.31m)
June 1, Taiwan, 80.04m (Ryota Kashimura of Japan, 72.57m)

by Marty Hastings

THE TATTLE OF HASTINGS: The Katzberg Job

Our Community