Japan's hammer-throw champion Murofushi is unflappable 23. August 07

OSAKA, Japan (AFP) - Olympic hammer-throw gold medallist Koji Murofushi is determined to remain as unflappable as his hero samurai swordsman, despite his slow build-up to the world championships on home turf.

"I won't alter my style no matter who may come to compete. I throw the hammer for myself," the 32-year-old Japanese said when one of his rivals, Adrian Annus, made a comeback in May.

Murofushi finished second to Annus at the 2004 Athens Olympics but was awarded the gold medal after the Hungarian muscleman was disqualified for refusing a doping test. A two-year ban on Annus expired last September.

Murofushi only began his preparations for Osaka in late July when he won the national title with a mediocre throw of 79.24 metres with all medallists from the 2005 world championships already throwing longer than 80m in the season.

"I think it was a reasonable start to the season," he said. "From the beginning, I have been set to peak for this summer's world championships. I am just supposed to keep on training."

It was his 13th straight national honour, surpassing the previous record of 12 titles held by his father Shigenobu, who won five Asian Games gold medals and was called "Iron Man of Asia."

Belarusian Ivan Tikhon, bidding for a third straight world gold, has been the stand out the season with a best of 82.58m in June, compared with his personal best of 86.73m.

Murofushi's four-year-old personal best of 84.86m has remained an Asian record and stands fifth on the all-time world list.

The Japanese star, who won the 2001 world silver medal and the 2003 bronze, has been dogged by persistent back pain and other fitness problems which laid him off for one year until May 2006. He sat out the 2005 world championships.

A calf muscle injury also cost him his bid for a third straight Asian Games title last December.

But he has remained unbeaten in 17 events spanning almost four years. He beat Tikhon in September last year at a meet in Yokohama.

Murofushi had to delay the start of his 2007 competition calendar by one month as he worked on a doctoral thesis on the biomechanics in the acceleration of hammer throwing.

His academic endeavour paid off with a doctor's degree by his alma mater, Chukyo University, where his 61-year-old father serves as a sports science professor.

The younger Murofushi, whose divorced mother was a Romanian Olympic javelin thrower and whose sister Yuka holds the national hammer and discus throw records, has another source of strength in addition to his genes.

While fine-tuning his fat-free body, 187cm (6.1 feet) and 99kg (218 lbs), he has been drawn over the years to the writings of famous 17th-century samurai Miyamoto Musashi who survived 60 sword fights in his lifetime.

"In order to master the swordsmanship, I imagine that it is necessary to stop thinking about winning," Murofushi said early in the season.

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