The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Tehran

Twelve years ago, an Iranian schoolboy named Ehsan Hadadi took aim at goal in a school handball match and threw the ball with such power it broke the goalpost.

His stunned sports teacher, Mr Garshasbi, was suitably impressed. "You must take part in a throwing sport," he advised.

Hadadi turned to the most ancient throwing discipline-the discus-and after years of hard work to perfect his extraordinary talent, he is one of the favourites to win gold at the Beijing Olympics.

Iran has never come close to winning a medal of any colour in athletics since the country's first appearance in the Olympics of 1948 in London and the responsibility resting on Hadadi's broad shoulders is huge.

"Mr Garshasbi trained me and in the fifth grade I came fifth in the Tehran schools tournament," Hadadi told AFP in an interview before the Beijing Olympics.

"I've always loved throwing ever since I was a child. Even when we went to the Caspian Sea, I threw rocks into the sea," he said as he took a break from one of his training sessions at Tehran's Azadi stadium.

Hadadi has already made history by becoming the first Iranian to win a medal at global athletics championships when he took gold at the 2004 World Junior Championships. He then won gold in the 2006 Asian Games.

The Iranian has already been in top form this year, throwing a season's best of 69.12 metres in June in Berlin, just 20 centimeters short of his personal best. Only Germany's Gerd Kanter, with 71.88 meters, and the Lithuanian Virgilijus Alenka, with 71.25 meters, have thrown further this year.

Hadadi-who is sponsored by US giant Nike-trains for 10 sessions a week.