There was a time when Olympic hammer-throwers upped their training ahead of the Games by downing more eggs and beer. Not anymore. Koji Murofushi, a Japanese man with only three per cent body fat, is determined to end the notion that Olympic hammer medals are reserved for human behemoths.

The 25-year-old national champion, who stands six foot, two inches tall and weighs 198 pounds, is easily the lightest and slimmest of all hammer-throwing medal contenders.

But Murofushi can throw the 16-pound hammer prodigious distances. Last month, he set a national record with a throw of 80.56 metres, a distance that would have won him the gold medal at last year's world championships in Seville and the bronze at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

Murofushi's technique to make up for his comparative lack of physical presence is to lean further and further backwards during each turn, thereby extending the radius between the axis of his spin and the head of the hammer.

It is not an easy technique to imitate. Murofushi inherited it from his father and coach Shigenobu, the five-time Asian Games champion who held the former national record until his son won it in 1998.