Men’s Hammer Throw
2025 USATF Championships
By Mark Cullen
Rudy Winkler left no doubt as to who the 2025 USATF Men’s hammer champion is. He led from first throw to last and had a stellar series that included four throws over the benchmark 80m (262-5).
The parallels with DeAnna Price’s historic championship performance are striking. Each had one of the greatest six-throw series in US history, and each had five throws that would have won the competition.
Winkler’s winning 81.47 (267-3) came in the second round, and he was never headed.
Veteran Daniel Haugh threw 77.28 (253-6) in the 4th round for what appeared to be a secure 2nd place finish at the time.
Not so fast.
While Trey Knight had hair-raising fouls on his first two attempts, he launched himself into a competition-saving top 8 with his 3rd round 74.56 (244-7). This allowed him three more throws in the final; he took full advantage of the opportunity.
Knight shocked the entire field with his 78.76 (258-5) in the 6th and final round. This dropped Haugh into third place from second, but he kept a spot on the World Championships team.
In this competition, Knight’s season twice came down to one last throw.
Twice he succeeded: first to make finals, then to make Worlds.
And with that last throw, to record a personal best.
Nice timing.
Tanner Berg, who ultimately finished 4th, threw a personal best 76.93 m (252-4) and led the competition at the end of the first round. But that lasted only until Winkler’s winning second-round toss.
In a remarkably deep competition, 7 threw over 76.00 m (249-4) and 14 over 70.00 m (229-8).
Winkler attributed his success to “being happy in my life. I’m really in the groove with my coach, with my wife (they are recently married), and everything is just really coming together. I feel bold and complete, which is, I think, contributing to me just throwing far and being comfortable in the ring.”
Haugh felt as though he was not in the zone – that he had not had his best day. Nonetheless, he drew on the experience of having made two Olympic teams to get him through the competition successfully.
“You make every (World and Olympic) team since 2019,” he said, “you get older, you get more experienced. You know how to kind of work through it mentally, how to work through the attempts.”
“It was weird at the start (of the season)," Winkler said, "because I went to Drake Relays at the end of April/early May… then I had a trip to Europe for two weeks and then I came back. Normally when I do that, (I have) 2-3 weeks to get ready for nationals.”
Instead, “I got back from Europe and (it was) almost two months until nationals, so it’s been nice in a way... I can extend my mid-season training.”
He thinks that’s part of the reason he’s throwing well.
“I think that the break helped me get into a place where I could do it every day. It’s just been like every day of the same. I can stay in that training mode as long as I can and that’s awesome. So, for me it’s great.”
When noted that it’s possibly an epic moment when he throws over 80m four times while in mid-season training, Winkler said with emphasis, “Yeah, no, I’m in good shape, and I think if you were to see my training and then see how I’m competing, you’d be like, ”Oh, that makes sense.’ ”
“So, training has been great and it’s just between now and Worlds.”
“It’s all about just keeping it consistent.”
It had been a rocky year for Knight, who had an abrupt end to his collegiate season with three fouls in the NCAA Western Regional. He bounced back with a 78.15 (256-4) personal best at the Portland Track Festival in June, a harbinger of greater things to come.
The soft-spoken Ridgefield (WA) High School graduate said, “I think it worked out well. I had time after regionals to take a break, to renew, coach, and have some really good talks about ‘what do we want?’”
“It was a good little stretch of time of us figuring it out… us getting on the same page… figuring out why we are doing this? What’s our mission here?”
“And to do it in a healthy way.”
The 22-year-old Knight wants his success to be measured beyond winning and losing, and to be mindful of the role this entire experience will play for him as he goes through life.
He does not want it all to be about winning, or that a loss is equated with failure.
“We don’t want that,” he said.
"I’m just trying to be the best thrower I can be.”
***
For the statistically inclined, here is Winkler’s series:
77.15 – 81.47 – 80.85 – 80.41 – 79.24 – 80.78
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