Jaak Uudmäe

Jaak Uudmäe (born September 3, 1954 in Tallinn ) is a former Soviet athlete of Estonian origin.

Career

Uudmäe first attracted international attention in stadium competitions at the 1979 Summer Universiade when he won the silver medal in the triple jump . He is remembered as the triple jumper who prevented his teammate Viktor Saneyev from becoming Olympic champion for the fourth time in a row with his victory at the 1980 Olympic Games . With his personal best of 17.35 m, Uudmäe jumped almost as far in his Olympic victory as Saneyev did in his Olympic victory in 1968 at Mexico City.

He also won three medals at the European Athletics Indoor Championships . In 1977 he won silver with 16.46 m behind Saneyev with 16.65 m. 1979 Uudmäe won bronze with 16.91 m behind his two Soviet teammates Gennady Valyukevich (17.02 m) and Anatoli Piskulin (16.97 m). In 1980 he won with 16.51 silver behind the Hungarian Béla Bakosi with 16.86 m. 1983 Uudmäe was again fifth at the European Indoor Championships with 16.56 m.

In 1979 and 1980 Jaak Uudmäe was named Sportsman of the Year in the Estonian SSR . He is 1.90 m tall and weighed 73 kg during his active time.

Others

His son Jaanus Uudmäe (born December 24, 1980) is also a track and field athlete and has represented Estonia several times internationally in the triple jump.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Jaanus Uudmäe (Estonian)

Web links

• Jaak Uudmäe in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Sports achievements and photo (Estonian)