Igor Yuryevich Nikulin

Igor Jurjewitsch Nikulin ( Russian Игорь Юрьевич Никулин ; born August 14, 1960 in Moscow ) is a former athlete who competed for the Soviet Union until 1991 , in 1992 for the United Team of the CIS and from 1993 for Russia . Nikulin was one of the best athletes of his time in hammer throw .

Career

Igor Nikulin is the son of Juri Nikulin , who won the Olympic hammer throw in 1964. In 1979, Nikulin won the title at the Junior European Championships with 71.56 meters. Already in 1980 Nikulin finished second in the Soviet championship behind Jurij Sedych and in front of Sergei Litvinov . For the Soviet Olympic team, however, Sedych, Litwinow and the Estonian Jueri Tamm were nominated, who also took the first three places in that order. In 1981 Nikulin won his first Soviet championship title, albeit in the absence of the three Olympic medalists. At the Universiade in 1981, Nikulin took third place. In 1982 Nikulin was able to defend his Soviet championship title, with 80.14 meters he won well ahead of Litvinov. The two throwers together with Sedych represented the Soviet Union at the European Championships in Athens in 1982 . Sedych won the title with 81.66 meters ahead of Nikulin with 79.44 meters and Litvinow.

At the Soviet championship in 1983 Litvinov won ahead of Nikulin, Sedych was only fourth. At the first World Athletics Championships in Helsinki Litvinov won ahead of Sedych. The Pole Zdzisław Kwaśny was third with 79.42 meters, Nikulin was fourth with 79.34 meters. In 1984 Nikulin won his third Soviet championship title, but because of the Olympic boycott of the Soviet Union he missed another Olympic participation. In 1985 Nikulin's highlight of the season was the Universiade, where he won a bronze medal.

At the European Championships in 1986 in Stuttgart, Jurij Sedych won with a new world record of 86.74 meters ahead of Litvinow with 85.76 meters. Igor Nikulin won the bronze medal with 82.00 meters, he was again over two meters ahead of fourth-placed Gunther Rodehau . A year later at the World Championships in Rome in 1987 , six throwers exceeded the eighty-meter mark. Litvinov successfully defended his title in the absence of Sedych. Jüri Tamm won silver in front of Ralf Haber and Christoph Sahner , Nikulin took fifth place with 80.18 meters with the same distance as sixth-placed Heinz Weis . In 1988 Litvinov, Sedych and Tamm were nominated for the Olympic Games and won the three medals in that order. At the European Championships in Split in 1990, none of the three Olympic medalists competed. Ihar Astapkowitsch , Andrei Abduwalijew and Igor Nikulin were supposed to represent the Soviet Union, but Abduwaliev did not qualify because of an injury. Astapkowitsch was European champion ahead of the Hungarian Tibor Gécsek , while Nikulin took third place with a distance of 80.02 meters, twelve centimeters behind Gécsek.

After Nikulin had never managed to qualify for a Soviet Olympic team, he managed to take part in the Olympics with the United Team in 1992 . As in 1980 and 1988, all three medals went to the territory of the now former Soviet Union, behind Abduwalijew and Astapkowitsch Nikulin won the bronze medal with 81.38 meters and three and a half meters ahead of Tibor Gécsek.

After winning the Russian national championship title in 1994, Nikulin finally competed for Russia at the European Championships in Helsinki in 1994 , with 78.38 meters he was fourth ten centimeters behind Heinz Weis, who won the bronze medal.

In 1980, Nikulin was the youngest hammer thrower to surpass the 80-meter mark and then was in the world class for over a decade, achieving his greatest distance of 84.48 in 1990 in Lausanne. In total, he achieved litters of over 80 meters in ten different years. Igor Nikulin was 1.91 meters tall and had a competition weight of 102 kilograms. In addition to his sports career, Nikulin studied and then became a teacher in Saint Petersburg.

Overview of placements

Olympic games

• 1992 bronze with 81.38 meters

World championships

• 1983 4th place with 79.34 meters
• 1987 5th place with 80.18 meters

European championships

• 1982 silver with 79.44 meters
• 1986 bronze with 82.00 meters
• 1990 bronze with 80.02 meters
• 1994 4th place with 78.38 meters

Universiads

• 1981 3rd place with 75.24 meters
• 1985 3rd place with 74.04 meters

literature

• ATFS (Ed.): USSR Athletics Statistics. London 1988
• Peter Matthews (Ed.): Athletics 1995. Surbiton 1995, ISBN 1-899807-00-4
• Ekkehard zur Megede: The Modern Olympic Century 1896-1996 Track and Field Athletics. Berlin 1999 (published by the German Society for Athletics Documentation eV )

Web links

• Igor Nikulin in the database of World Athletics (English)
• Igor Jurjewitsch Nikulin in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )