European Athletics Championships 1966 / Women's discus throw

8th European Athletics Championships
discipline	Women's discus throw
city	Budapest
Stadion	Népstadion
Participants	14 athletes from 9 countries
Competition phase	August 31 (qualifying) September 1 (final)
Medalists
gold	Christine Spielberg ( GDR )
silver	Liesel Westermann ( FRG )
bronze	Anita Hentschel ( GDR )

The Népstadion at an event
in 1953

The women's discus throw at the European Athletics Championships in 1966 was held on August 31 and September 1, 1966 in Budapest's Népstadion .

With gold and bronze, there were two medals in this competition for the throwers from the GDR. Christine Spielberg became the European champion . She won ahead of the German athlete Liesel Westermann . Bronze went to Anita Hentschel .

Records

Existing records

World record	59.70 m	Tamara Press	Moscow , then Soviet Union (now Russia )	August 11, 1965
European record
EM record	56.91 m		EM Belgrade , Yugoslavia	September 15, 1962

Record improvement

The existing championship record was improved twice at these European championships in the final on September 1st:

• 57.38 m - Liesel Westermann , 3rd round 
• 57.76 m - Christine Spielberg , 4th round 

qualification

The two-time Olympic bronze medalist in 1960 and 1964 Lia Manoliu failed to qualify - two years later she became  Olympic champion

August 31, 1966, 10:00 a.m.

In contrast to the shot put the day before, also with fourteen participants, the organizers did not waive the qualifying round in the discus throw . The width for the direct entry into the final was 50.00 m. Eleven athletes exceeded this mark (highlighted in light blue), the final field was filled with the next best placed athlete to twelve throwers (highlighted in light green). So finally 49.66 m was enough for the final. Only two female throwers were eliminated.

space	Surname	nation	Width (m)
1	Liesel Westermann	BR Germany	56.42
2	Ludmilla Shcherbakova	Soviet Union	55.96 PB
3	Christine Spielberg	GDR	53.94
4th	Štěpánka Mertová	Czechoslovakia	53.52 PB
5	Jolán Kleiber	Hungary	53.28
6th	Judit Stugner	Hungary	53.12 SB
7th	Anita Hentschel	GDR	52.10
8th	Kriemhild Limberg	BR Germany	52.02 SB
9	Ingrid Lotz	GDR	51.60
10	Wirschinija Michajlowa	Bulgaria	51.56
11	Elivia Ricci	Italy	51.46 PB
12	Jiřina Němcová	Czechoslovakia	49.66
13	Lia Manoliu	Romania	49.44 SB
14th	Pina Thani	Albania	42.12 PB

final

September 1, 1966, 5:00 p.m.

space	Surname	nation	Width (m)
1	Christine Spielberg	GDR	57.76 CR
2	Liesel Westermann	BR Germany	57.38 BR
3	Anita Hentschel	GDR	56.80 PB
4th	Jolán Kleiber	Hungary	56.24 PB
5	Wirschinija Michajlowa	Bulgaria	53.68 PB
6th	Ingrid Lotz	GDR	53.34 SB
7th	Jiřina Němcová	Czechoslovakia	52.40 PB
8th	Štěpánka Mertová	Czechoslovakia	51.64
9	Ludmilla Shcherbakova	Soviet Union	50.56
10	Judit Stugner	Hungary	49.96
11	Kriemhild Limberg	BR Germany	49.20
12	Elivia Ricci	Italy	48.80

The European and Vice European Champions had the following series of tests in the final:

• Christine Spielberg: 54.32 m - 53.54 m - 54.20 m - 57.76 m - x - 54.24 m
• Liesel Westermann: 55.82 m - 55.50 m - 57.38 m - 55.18 m - 52.64 m - 56.54 m

• 

  Bronze medalist Anita Hentschel

• 

  The Olympic runner-up in 1964 Ingrid Lotz reached sixth place

Web links

• European Athletics Championships - Budapest 1966 at european-athletics.org, accessed June 2, 2019
• Discus Discus Throw European Championship 1966 Budapest on todor66.com, accessed June 2, 2019
• European Athletics Championships Zurich 2014 - Statistics Handbook , Women Discus Throw European Championship 1962 Beograd, p. 404 (PDF, 13,363 kB), in English at european-athletics.org, accessed on June 2, 2019
• Track and Field Statistics, EM 1966 on trackfield.brinkster.net, accessed June 2, 2019
• Results of all European Athletics Championships - 1966, discus throw women on sportschau.de, accessed on June 2, 2019
• 8th European Athletics Championships 1966 in Budapest, Hungary from ifosta.de, accessed on June 2, 2019

References and comments

1. ↑ IAAF world records. Discus throw women , accessed June 2, 2019