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Kristjan Ceh has become the youngest world champion of all time in discus throwing after winning with a dizzying new competition record in Eugene. The Slovenian athlete will also be seen competing at the Gyulai István Memorial on 8 August.

Superman has risen to the top of the world – Kristjan Ceh, who resembles one of the most popular superheroes with his framed glasses and physique, won the men’s discus at the World Championships 2022 in Oregon.

Although he became the youngest World Champion in the history of the event at the age of 23 and 153 days, his success at Hayward Field is not unexpected. Even though Olympic champion and titleholder Daniel Stahl has this year’s world leading result, the Swede could only beat his young Slovenian rival in Turku. Until July, Ceh had triumphed on the other five occasions when both were in the field.

In March, he immediately surprised his experienced rival at the European Throwing Cup, and went on to win Diamond League rounds against him in Birmingham, Rabat, Rome and Stockholm. In these competitions, Ceh consistently threw around 70 metres, while Stahl’s results seemed to be more solid at 65-67 metres. Accordingly, he finished the World Championships final with 67.10 metres, which gave him 4th place.

Ceh, on the other hand, was able to give his best and his 71.13m performance not only won him the gold medal, but also the world championship record. He “destroyed” by almost a metre the record of Virgiljius Alekna of Lithuania, whose son Mykolas, 19, finished behind him with the silver medal.

We can’t help but be pleased to see that, apart from Mykolas, all of the discus throwers who finished in the Top 5 will be competing in Székesfehérvár on 8 August. Ceh will be joined in the circle again by Stahl, who finished first at the Gyulai István Memorial in 2019, 2020 and 2021, and who will be eager to get back at his Slovenian rival.

Stahl will be joined by another outstanding Swede, Simon Pettersson, who finished 5th after his silver medal in Tokyo, and 2017 World Championship gold medallist and defending European Champion Andrius Gudzius of Lithuania, who will also compete in Hungary’s most prestigious one-day event.

Hungarian János Huszák and Róbert Szikszai, who are also among the best European throwers, will have to compete with three world champions on their home field. Every part of the Ceh, Stahl, Gudzius duel is a prestigious match. Also in the World Championship winner’s circle is Ceh’s coach Gerd Kanter, who celebrated a World Championship title in 2007 and won the Olympics a year later.

He has been working with the Estonian legend since February 2022 and his work is already bearing fruit in their first season together. The fruits of this collaboration have now been harvested in the USA and may be collected in Székesfehérvár on 8 August. But the rivals will have something to say about that!

Ceh is already the fifth athlete to arrive in the City of Hungarian kings as Oregon’s world champion: Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce won the 100m, Grant Holloway the 110m hurdles, Ryan Crouser the shot put and Pawel Fajdek the hammer throw on the West Coast.