BERLIN, Aug. 17 (Xinhua) -- Olympic champion Primoz Kozmus from Slovenia defended his honor in Berlin as he pocketed the gold medal of men's hammer throw on Monday at the 12th World Athletic Championships.

    Kozmus threw his seasonal best of 80.84 meters at the Olympic Stadium, while Polish thrower Szymon Ziolkowski took the silver with 79.30 meters, also his seasonal best, and Russia's Aleksey Zagornyi brought home a bronze with 78.09 meters.

    The big loser in this principle is pre-event favorite Kristian Pars, who came into Berlin with an 18-meet winning streak.

    After a forgettable first round, the competition picked up in round two when Beijing Olympic champion Kozmus sent one flying out to 79.74m. But Poland's Ziolkowski - the man who won Olympic gold eight years before Kozmus - then unleashed a season's best of 79.30m to move into the silver medal position.

    Pars made things very difficult for himself from the outset. After opening with a below-par 75.51m, the Hungarian followed it up with two fouls. At one point it even looked as though he would even miss out on making the top-eight cut.

    Eventually he scraped through and improved in round four to 77.45m, moving into the bronze medal position. But a foul followed, leaving Pars with just one attempt in which to improve. And to pile on extra pressure, Kozmus improved to 80.15m at the end of the penultimate round.

    But the final round brought simply more bad fortune for Pars. Russia's Aleksey Zagornyi - who previously had a reputation for a string of disappointments at major championships - improved to 78.09m, pushing Pars out of the medals altogether. Pars could not respond and ended up a bitterly disappointed fourth, with his second-lowest throw of the year.

    Kozmus, meanwhile, stepped into the ring for his final throw. The cheers grew louder in the Olympic Stadium as his hammer went higher and further, eventually landing at a season's best of 80.84m, saving the final from having the lowest winning mark in IAAF World Championship history.

    "My throwing was very good today. I am happy that my body did not disappointed me at the world championships," Kozmus said.

    However, Kozmus said Monday's final was "a little bit strange competition".

    "I do not know what was going on but everybody was so nervous and they were not throwing well. I expected Pars to be very strong but it was not him at all," he added.

    Silver medallist Ziolkowski, who won gold medal in Sydney Olympics in 2000, was pleased with his coming-back.

    "In my history, I achieved medals at international competitions for nearly a decade now. The last was a bronze in 2005. So, I hope that I am coming back now and starting to win medals again," he said.

    "I hope I will still win medals until 2012 and 2013," the 33-year-old veteran said.