by Elliott DenmanRudy Winkler set an American record of 82.71m, 271’4″. His throw was massive. Rudy is now a global hammer throw player.
Last night, while I was editing pieces for RunBlogRun, I met Lance Deal and Robert Weir, both Olympic hammer throwers, and also university coaches. We were speaking about throwers at the Trials.
Robert Weir and Lance Deal were quite impressed with Rudy’s throwing, as we are as well.
Elliott Denman wrote this piece, and this is part of his daily blog during the Olympic Trials. Elliott has written for my publications since 1992.
Rudy Winkler sets AR of 82.71m/271’4″, photo by Kevin Morris/Kevmofoto
DAY 3 OLYMPIC TRIALS BLOG
By ELLIOTT DENMAN
EUGENE, OREGON – High above Cayuga’s waters, they’ve obviously got one heck of a webmaster.
Literally, moments after Rudy Gabe Winkler, Cornell University ’17, had whirled around the ring at Hammer Stadium – the event-specific venue for the ball-and-wire competition created on the north fringe of Hayward Field – and sent his implement on a shocking ride of 82.71 meters, or 271 feet, 4 inches – to obliterate all previous records for (a) all of the Western Hemisphere, (b) the United States of America; (c) the USA Olympic Trials, the news had been recognized. cheered and properly e-denoted all the way across the nation in Ithaca, N.Y.
Cornell, founded by Ezra Cornell back in 1864, of course, occupies Ithaca’s idyllic Finger-Laked Ivy League campus located on the south end of Ol’ Cayuga.
A quick glimpse of its distinguished alumni list reveals the names of such notable achievers as Kurt Vonnegut, Toni Morrison, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Christopher Reeve, Bill Maher, Gabe Giffords, Adolph Coors III, Harry Edwards, Adolphe Menjou, Ed Marinaro….and on and on…
And maneuver that same website a few more clicks and you’ll hit on a hugely impressive list of Cornell Olympians.
And there some very quick surfing will get you to the names of such as John Anderson (discus 1932), Edward Cook (pole vault 1908), Frank Foss (pole vault 1920), Charley Moore (400 hurdles 1952), and Alma Richards (high jump 1912), individual gold medalists all. Oh, and Meredith Gourdine (1952) and Bo Roberson (1960), who settled for long jump silvers by mere centimeters.
OK, none recently, but that now seems ready for adjustment.
Of course,/of course, Rudy Winkler had already qualified for the Cornell alumni Olympians roster by his cameo appearance at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games – where he was unable to get past the qualifying round.
But the 2021 Rudy is surely destined for a much bigger role at the Tokyo Olympic Games.
In the past five years, he’s made some incredible advances. He earned a Masters’s degree from Rutgers (where he was able to compete for the Scarlet Knights as a grad transfer.) He’s a more robust Rudy now, 26 years old, six-foot-two, 238 pounds. And with those Clark Kentish-spectacles, he’s some fans’ version of Superman.
He’s especially super to Coach Paddy McGrath, the former Irish Olympic hammer-tosser who guides the throwers at Manhattan College, when he’s not additionally coaching Winkler.
Rudy has been his pupil for years, ever since his days at Averill Park (N.Y.) High School (in the Albany vicinity) where his precocity and quick learning skills soon set him apart.
But the new Rudy is a class all his own.
“It’s kind of amazing,” said McGrath, after the 82.71m bomb demolished the previous American record, the 82.52/ 270-9 mark achieved by Lance Deal at Milan on Aug. 7, 1996.
Rudy Winkler, 82.71m/271’4″ AR hammer throw, photo by Kevin Morris / Kevmofoto
“I’m kind of in shock right now, ” said McGrath. “He beat Lance Deal’s record. I never thought that I’d coach a guy at that level.
“He showed great poise, great concentration.”
(Roman Feldman has also been a member of Winkler’s coaching team.)
Rudy Winkler/Clark Kent/Superman had one sensational day in the Eugene ring.
His record-walloping series went this way: 80.75m/ 264-11; 82.71m/ 271-4, 80.98m/265-8, 82.10m/269-4, 79.51m/ 261-2, 80.28m/263-5, No other thrower beat 80 meters.
No American has won the Olympic hammer throw since Boston College graduate Harold Connolly did it in 1956. Oregon’s own Deal came close, with a silver medal at the Los Angeles Games of 1996.
Poland’s Pawel Fajdek (at 82.98 / 272-3) marginally tops the 2021 year list and will be a formidable foe in Tokyo. The world record still stands at 86.74 / 284-7, by Russia’s Yuriy Sedykh at Stuttgart on Aug. 30, 1986.
Given Winkler’s rate of progress, nothing seems beyond his potential.
And high above Cayuga’s waters, Mr. Website Master knows he’d better be ready to make a few major adjustments.
