In his third attempt, Tikhon, who is celebrating his 40th birthday on July 24th, came second only to world record holder Pawel Fajdek of Poland, whose 81.71m throw, in 2015, at the World Championship, earned him this accolade. 2015 world vice-champion Dilshod Nazarov of Tajikistan has third place, with a throw of 78.82m.
Ivan Tikhon
The head coach of the Belarusian national squad, Igor Sivodedov, hopes that Ivan Tikhon will be able to perform well at the 2016 Olympiad in Rio de Janeiro.
During the 2008 Games, in Beijing, Ivan claimed bronze but had to return it after accusations of doping. However, after two years of a lawsuit against the International Olympic Committee, Tikhon and his teammate, Vadim Devyatovsky, who clinched silver in Beijing in 2008, were returned their Olympic awards.
Sadly, the accusation led to Tikhon being denied entry to the 2012 Olympiad in London and he was deprived of his 2004 Olympic silver, as well as his title of 2005 World Champion, and was later disqualified for two years, from August 3rd, 2012, until August 3rd, 2014.
After those long years of disqualification, Ivan returned in 2015 but failed to do well at the World Championship in Beijing. Happily, he appears back on good form, having shown his ability on June 1st in Minsk.
Alina Talay also performed at Belarus’ Athletics Championship, winning the 100m hurdles; despite being far from her best result, she outstripped her rivals easily.
She notes, “Last year, I won with a result of 12.70 seconds. However, there was a cross wind today. I hope that I’ll run faster at the European Championships in Amsterdam.”
By Alexey Grishin
