Nearly the gold for hammer thrower (4)
I believe the answer is:
thor
'for hammer thrower' is the definition.
(the Norse god Thor wields a hammer)
'nearly the gold' is the wordplay.
'nearly' means to remove the last letter.
'gold' becomes 'or' ('or' is the heraldic name for gold).
'the' with its last letter taken away is 'th'.
'th'+'or'='THOR'
(Other definitions for thor that I've seen before include "Germanic deity" , "Norse god of war" , "Scandinavian god of thunder and the weather" , "Norse deity" , "Mythical figure" .)