Image credit: Athletics B.C.
Ethan Katzberg

Kamloops Track and Field athletes shatters his own Canadian record

May 28, 2021 | 6:30 PM

KAMLOOPS — An athlete who trains at the Kamloops Track and Field Club has shattered his own Canadian record.

Ethan Katzberg set the new Canadian Under-20 mark in the hammer throw with a toss of 77.97 meters with a six kilogram hammer.

That broke the record he had set earlier this month by more than two meters.

Katzberg, who is from Nanaimo, trains with Olympic medalist Dylan Armstrong, the head coach and throws coach at the Kamloops Track and Field Club.

While his primary focus right now is the U-20 World Track and Field Championship set to be held in Kenya in August, there is a chance that Katzberg, a junior, may compete with senior athletes at the Olympic trials in Montreal next month.

The current Canadian senior record is 79.13 —- even though as a junior he throws the lighter hammer, Katzberg’s record throw for a junior is less than two meters off that mark.

A former high school track and basketball star player in Nanaimo, he switched his focus to the hammer after graduating a year ago.

Katzberg moved to Kamloops to train with Dylan Armstrong.

Armstrong recruited Katzberg after first seeing him at a high school meet three years ago.

His has been a meteoric rise in the world of the junior hammer throw.

Katzberg has improved his throw by more than eight meters since setting a record in March for the longest hammer throw ever by an 18-year old in Canadian history.

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