But there were some nervous final moments for the Olympic gold medallist from the 2004 Athens Games, who threw a best of 81.24 metres, twice, on his third and fifth efforts.

Hungary's Krisztian Pars stepped up for his sixth and final throw with nothing to lose.

After spinning around the throwing circle, the Hungarian swung the 7.257kg ball up and over the 80m mark to gasps from the packed Daegu stadium.

An anxious wait ensued before Pars was shown to have thrown 81.18m, six centimetres short of Murofushi's best mark, but good enough for the silver medal.

Slovenia's reigning world champion Primoz Kozmus could not match his Berlin form and had to content himself with bronze (79.39m).

Murofushi missed the 2009 worlds having failed to recover from lower back and groin problems.

The 36-year-old's previous best showing at the worlds was a silver in 2001 and bronze in 2003.