DUSHANBE, May 26, 2015, Asia-Plus – Hammer thrower Dilshod Nazarov is the first among Tajik athlete to qualify for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Summer Olympics finishing with 79.36 meters at the 2015 Ostrava Golden Spike, Czech Republic on May 25.
This result also gives him the right to participate in the 2015 IAAF World Championships that will take place in China from August 22-30.
Golden Spike is an annual athletics event at the Mestsky Stadium in Ostrava-Vitcovice, Czech Republic as part of the IAAF World Challenge Meetings. It was first organized in 1961.
The IAAF website notes that for the third year in a row, Hungary’s Krisztian Pars and Poland’s Pawel Fajdek occupied the top two places in the men’s challenge, though the margin of more than three points in Pars’ favor was a lot more comfortable than the previous year when Fajdek edged to victory.
Pars breached the 80-metre mark in all three of his scoring competitions. The Olympic champion won at two of those, throwing 81.57m to win in Ostrava and a season’s best of 82.49m to take out the event in Szekesfehervar.
World champion Fajdek had the upper hand in Rieti, winning with 81.11m to Pars’ 80.78m.
Dilshod Nazarov was third in the overall standings, just 0.12 behind Fajdek
Since the series began in 2010, the winning score in the men’s contest has improved year-on-year with Pars’ tally of 244.84 (Fajedk 241.49, Nazarov 241.37) being the best to date, according to the IAAF website.
Dilshod Nazarov, 33, is a Tajik track and field athlete who specializes in the hammer throw. He has represented his country at the Olympic Games on three occasions (in 2004, 2008 and 2012).
He has competed five times at the World Championships in Athletics (2005 to 2013), but has been most successful at regional competitions: he won medals at four consecutive Asian Athletics
Championships and was the hammer champion at the Asian Games in 2006 and 2010. He won his first global medal silver) in 2010 at the IAAF Continental Cup.
His personal best for the event is 80.71 meters, set in 2013.
