Dilshod Jamoliddinovich Nazarov (, ; , ''Dilshod Dzhamoliddinovich Nazarov'') (born 6 May 1982) is a Tajik

track and field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...

athlete who specializes in the

hammer throw The hammer throw (HT for short) is one of the four throwing events in regular outdoor track-and-field competitions, along with the discus throw, shot put and Javelin throw, javelin. The hammer used in this sport is not like any of the tools a ...

. He has represented his country at the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a Multi-s ...

on four occasions (in 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2016), winning the gold medal in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...

, the first gold medal for

Tajikistan Tajikistan, officially the Republic of Tajikistan, is a landlocked country in Central Asia. Dushanbe is the capital city, capital and most populous city. Tajikistan borders Afghanistan to the Afghanistan–Tajikistan border, south, Uzbekistan to ...

in the history of the

. He has competed seven times at the

World Championships in Athletics The World Athletics Championships, known as the IAAF World Championships in Athletics until 2019, are a biennial athletics competition organized by World Athletics, formerly International Association of Athletics Federations. Alongside Olympic ...

(2005 to 2017), but has been most successful at regional competitions: he won medals at four consecutive

Asian Athletics Championships The Asian Athletics Championships is an event organized by the Asian Athletics Association. History The competition courted controversy with the IAAF when political in-fighting arose after Israel was excluded from participation in 1977. That edi ...

and was the hammer champion at the

Asian Games The Asian Games, also known as Asiad, is a continental multi-sport event held every four years for athletes of Asia. The Games were regulated by Asian Games Federation from the 1951 Asian Games, first Games in New Delhi, India in 1951, until ...

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

and

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

. He won his first global medal (a silver) in 2010 at the

IAAF Continental Cup The IAAF Continental Cup was an international track and field competition organized by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). The event was proposed by IAAF former President Primo Nebiolo and was first held in 1977 as ...

. His personal best for the event is 80.71 metres, set in 2013.

Career

Early career

Born in

Dushanbe Dushanbe is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Tajikistan. , Dushanbe had a population of 1,564,700, with this population being largely Tajiks, Tajik. Until 1929, the city was known in Russian as Dyushambe, and from 1929 to 1961 as St ...

Dilshod Nazarov
. London2012. Retrieved on 2013-06-01. the capital of Tajikistan, his first noteworthy international result was a

bronze medal A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receives ...

at the

1997 West Asian Games The 1st West Asian Games was held from 19 to 28 November 1997 in Tehran, Iran and had around 850 athletes and 236 team officials participating from 10 countries in 15 sports. Initially only men were allowed to participate. The nations that parti ...

. He made his debut on the global stage at the

1998 World Junior Championships in Athletics The 1998 World Junior Championships in Athletics is the 1998 edition of the World Junior Championships in Athletics. It was held in Annecy, France from July 28 to August 2. Results Men 1 Ahmed Baday of Morocco originally won the bronze medal ...

, but he did not reach the final. His first continental gold medal came at the

1999 Asian Junior Athletics Championships The 1999 Asian Junior Athletics Championships was the eighth edition of the international athletics competition for Asian under-20 athletes, organised by the Asian Athletics Association. It took place from 30 September to 3 October in Singapore ...

. He took fifth place at the 2000 World Junior Championships, an event won by 2004 Olympic bronze medalist Eşref Apak, and repeated as the continental junior champion at the 2001 Asian Junior Athletics Championships. Nazarov then finished fourth at the 2002 Asian Championships in

Colombo Colombo, ( ; , ; , ), is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. The Colombo metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of 5.6 million, and 752,993 within the municipal limits. It is the ...

, and won a bronze medal the next year in

Manila Manila, officially the City of Manila, is the Capital of the Philippines, capital and second-most populous city of the Philippines after Quezon City, with a population of 1,846,513 people in 2020. Located on the eastern shore of Manila Bay on ...

in a contest won by

Ali Mohamed Al-Zinkawi Ali Mohammed Al-Zenkawi (born 27 February 1984) is a male hammer thrower from Kuwait. His personal best throw is 79.74 metres, achieved in September 2009 in Celje. International competitions References External links

* 1984 births ...

of Kuwait. He took part in the inaugural

Afro-Asian Games The Afro-Asian Games were the series of inter-continental multi-sport competitions, held between athletes from Asia and Africa. The event was held only once, in 2003. These Games were unique, since excluding the Olympic Games no other multi-sport ...

and managed to win the silver medal behind South African thrower

Chris Harmse Christiaan Harmse (born 31 May 1973) is a South African hammer thrower. He has broken the African record seven times, and holds the championship record for both the African Championships and All-Africa Games. He has been a dominant presence in ...

. Another medal came at the 2003 Central Asian Games in Dushanbe, where he took the hammer gold for the hosts.

Olympic debut and Asian medals

Participating in the

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad (), and officially branded as Athens 2004 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 13 to 29 August 2004 in Athens, Greece. The Games saw 10,625 athletes ...

, he got no mark in the qualifying round and thus failed to make it through to the second round. He started the next year with an appearance at the

2005 Islamic Solidarity Games The 1st Islamic Solidarity Games held in the Islamic holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia from 8–20 April 2005 with an Olympic-style tournament aimed at showing Muslim sports prowess and featuring 6,000 athletes. Only men's events were included on ...

, where he took his country's sole gold medal of the tournament. In June 2005 he threw a new personal best of 77.63 metres in

Almaty Almaty, formerly Alma-Ata, is the List of most populous cities in Kazakhstan, largest city in Kazakhstan, with a population exceeding two million residents within its metropolitan area. Located in the foothills of the Trans-Ili Alatau mountains ...

. At the 2005 World Championships he was again knocked out in the qualifying round, but at the 2005 Asian Championships in

Incheon Incheon is a city located in northwestern South Korea, bordering Seoul and Gyeonggi Province to the east. Inhabited since the Neolithic, Incheon was home to just 4,700 people when it became an international port in 1883. As of February 2020, ...

Nazarov won a

silver medal A silver medal, in sports and other similar areas involving competition, is a medal made of, or plated with, silver awarded to the second-place finisher, or runner-up, of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, ...

, again behind Al-Zinkawi. At the

2006 Asian Games The 2006 Asian Games (), officially known as the XV Asiad or 15th Asian Games (, and commonly known as Doha 2006 (), were an Asian multi-sport event held in Doha, Qatar, from December 1 to 15, 2006, with 424 events in 39 sports featured in the ga ...

Nazarov finally won a gold medal, overcoming Ali Mohamed Al-Zinkawi who had held the lead until the fifth and penultimate round. Al-Zinkawi was the pre-event favourite, having a season (and career) best of 76.97 metres while Nazarov only had a season best of 70.03 metres from

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

in June. The absence of 2004 Olympic champion

Koji Murofushi is a Japanese former hammer thrower and sports scientist. He has been among the world elite since the 2001 World Championships, where he won the silver medal. He was the 2004 Olympic champion. In 2011, he was crowned world champion. Early ...

was noted; nonetheless, Nazarov's gold medal was celebrated as the first gold medal of Tajikistan at the

in any sport. In addition it was their first Asian Games medal of any kind in athletics. Another famous hammer thrower, Andrey Abduvaliyev, did compete for Tajikistan from 1991 to 1997, winning gold medals at the

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game ...

in 1993 and 1995. When he won his first and only Asian Games medal, a silver at the 1998 edition, he did so as an

Uzbekistan , image_flag = Flag of Uzbekistan.svg , image_coat = Emblem of Uzbekistan.svg , symbol_type = Emblem of Uzbekistan, Emblem , national_anthem = "State Anthem of Uzbekistan, State Anthem of the Republ ...

i citizen. Commenting on the victory, Nazarov stated that "This is a big victory for my country". The next year Nazarov participated in his second

, but did not make it to the final round. At the 2007 Asian Championships, he won the silver medal, again behind Al-Zinkawi, this time by only one centimetre. He also improved his personal best throw to 78.89 metres, in June in Dushanbe. In 2008 he improved further, to 79.05 at a June meet in Almaty. At the

2008 Olympic Games The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fr ...

he finished eleventh in the final. He set a new national hammer throw record of 79.28 m in

Uberlândia Uberlândia () is a city and municipality in the state of Minas Gerais, southeastern Brazil. It is the second largest city in the state of Minas Gerais after the state capital Belo Horizonte. Its population in 2020 was 699,097, making it the si ...

, Brazil. The record, set in May 2009, was enough to bring him victory over Olympic champion

Primož Kozmus Primož Kozmus (born 30 September 1979 in Novo Mesto) is a Slovenian hammer thrower. His gold medals in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing and the 2009 World Championships in Berlin made him the first ever Slovenian athlete to win both titles. ...

. He finished eleventh again at the global level at the

2009 World Championships in Athletics The 12th IAAF World Championships in Athletics () were held in Berlin, Germany from 15 to 23 August 2009. The majority of events took place in the Olympiastadion, while the marathon and racewalking events started and finished at the Brandenbu ...

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

. He improved to fifth place at the

2009 IAAF World Athletics Final The 7th IAAF World Athletics Final was held at the Kaftanzoglio Stadium in Thessaloniki, Greece on September 12 and September 13, 2009. The competition represented the culmination of the 2009 IAAF World Athletics Tour, a selection of athletics m ...

however. He won his first continental title at the end of the year, finally beating Al-Zinkawi at the

2009 Asian Athletics Championships The 18th Asian Athletics Championships were held in Guangzhou, People's Republic of China, China in 2009. Results Men Track Field Women Track Field Medal table Participating nations * (12) * (1) * (1) * (77) * (22) * ...

after a series of second-place finishes. The following year, he improved his hammer best to 80.11 m at the Tajikistan national championships in June. Representing Asia-Pacific, he came second at the

2010 IAAF Continental Cup The 1st IAAF Continental Cup was an international track and field sporting event held under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations. Originally scheduled as the 11th IAAF World Cup in Athletics, it was renamed in 200 ...

, finishing just behind newly crowned European Champion

Libor Charfreitag Libor Charfreitag (born 11 September 1977 in Trnava) is a former hammer thrower from Slovakia. His personal best throw is 81.81 metres, achieved in June 2003 in Prague. Career He was chosen Slovak athlete of the year in 2003. He attended Southe ...

. He was also runner-up in the inaugural IAAF Hammer Throw Challenge series having a combined score of 236.02 to finish behind Koji Murofushi. He repeated that placing for the second IAAF Hammer Challenge in 2011, this time finishing behind Hungary's Krisztián Pars. Nazarov placed tenth in the final at the

2011 World Championships in Athletics The 13th IAAF World Championships in Athletics () was an international athletics competition that was held in Daegu, South Korea. It started on 27 August 2011 and finished on 4 September 2011. The United States topped the medal standings in the ...

and ended the year with his first throw over eighty metres, recording 80.30 m to win at the Hanzekovic Memorial. Nazarov performed less well in the 2012 season and his best throw that year was 77.70 m. He still managed to place tenth at the

2012 London Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

, but he was down in fifth on the IAAF Challenge circuit. He rebounded at the start of 2013 by setting a personal best of 80.71 m to win at the Hallesche Werfertage meet. On 18 March 2021, Nazarov was banned for two years by the AIU after testing positive for the banned steroid

turinabol Chlorodehydromethyltestosterone (CDMT; brand name Oral Turinabol), also known as 4-chloro-17β-hydroxy17α-methylandrosta-1,4-dien-3-one, is an anabolic–androgenic steroid (AAS). It is the 4-chloro-substituted derivative of metandienone (dehyd ...

during re-analysis of samples taken from the 2011 World Championships. All of Nazarov's results from 29 August 2011 to 29 August 2013 were disqualified.

International competitions

Personal life

He currently resides in

. He is also the president of the Athletics Federation of the Republic of Tajikistan. His father Jamoliddin Nazarov was a soldier in the

Tajik National Army The Armed Forces of the Republic of Tajikistan (; ), also known as the Tajik National Army (; ) is the national military of the Republic of Tajikistan. It consists of Ground Forces, Mobile Forces, and the Air Force, with closely affiliated fo ...

who died in Tavildar during the

Tajikistani Civil War The Tajikistani Civil War,, group=pron also known as the Tajik Civil War, began in May 1992 and ended in June 1997. Regional groups from the Garm and Gorno-Badakhshan regions of Tajikistan rose up against the newly formed government of Preside ...

. Dilshod's mother is a physical education teacher and coach.

State awards

Order of Glory The Order of Glory () was a military decoration of the Soviet Union established by Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet on November 8, 1943. It was awarded to soldiers and non-commissioned officers of the Red Army as well as to aviation ...

, 2nd class (2015) * Order of Glory, 2nd class (2016) * Medal "For strengthening the military commonwealth" (2016)

References

External links