With reigning champion Ivan Tsikhan banned from competition for doping offences, the 2008 Olympic gold and silver medallists Primož Kozmus and Krisztián Pars were the favourites in the event.
Belarusian Yuriy Shayunov and Russian Aleksey Zagornyi, the only other athletes to have thrown over eighty metres twice that season prior to the championships, were identified as possible podium finishers.
Nicola Vizzoni, Igor Sokolov, Olli-Pekka Karjalainen, Szymon Ziółkowski, Koji Murofushi, and Libor Charfreitag were all predicted to have an outside chance of a medal.
[2] On the final day of the hammer throw, the favourite Kozmus delivered a best of 80.15 m to take the gold medal, Slovenia's first ever in the World Championships.
The level of the competition, however, failed to live up to expectations: the world-leader Pars started poorly and, after a number of fouls, he never regained ground and finished in fourth place.