Fajdek wins hat-trick of hammer golds for Poland

LONDON, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Pawel Fajdek, the colourful hammer champion from Poland, became the first man to win three successive world championship titles with a dominant triumph on Friday.

The bespectacled, tattooed 28-year-old, whose world championship triumphs have gone hand in hand with Olympic calamities, completed a hammer double for Poland after Anita Wlodarczyk's triumph in the women's event.

The silver went to Russian Valeriy Pronkin, competing under the neutral flag after being given permission to take part by the IAAF only last month, as he produced a final-round throw to consign Fajdek's Polish rival Wojciech Nowicki to the bronze.

It was a typically commanding victory for one of the biggest favourites of the entire championships as the bearded Fajdek produced easily the three biggest throws of the night, headed by one of 79.81 metres.

Inexplicably, Fajdek had failed to qualify for both the 2016 Olympic final in Rio de Janeiro and the 2012 final in this same London stadium but after producing the eight best throws of the year, he was not about to let yet another win slip this time.

After a no-throw and a disappointing second effort, he unleashed successive efforts of 79.73m, 79.81m and 79.40m that blew away the field.

Nowicki looked set to make it a Polish one-two with his third-round effort of 78.03, before Pronkin surpassed that mark by 13 centimetres at the last time of asking. (Editing by Ed Osmond)