European Athletics Championships 1986 / men's javelin

14th European Athletics Championships
discipline	Men's javelin throw
city	Stuttgart
Stadion	Neckar Stadium
Attendees	30 athletes from 14 countries
Competition phase	August 26th (qualification) August 27th (final)
Medalist
gold	Klaus Tafelmeier ( FRG )
silver	Detlef Michel ( GDR )
bronze	Viktor Jewsjukov ( URS )

The Stuttgart stadium - today the Mercedes-Benz Arena in 2011

The men's javelin throw at the European Athletics Championships in 1986 was held on August 26 and 27, 1986 in the Neckar Stadium in Stuttgart .

For the first time, a 1986 modified javelin with a forward shifted center of gravity was used at a major international championship. The two main reasons for this were the ever larger distances achieved and the measurement problems that arose from the flat angle of impact of the old spear models. Often there was no mark or a mark that was difficult to recognize that the spear left on impact, which often made measuring the distance very difficult or sometimes even made the throw invalid. Moving the center of gravity forward on the new spear fixed both problems.

The German javelin thrower Klaus Tafelmeier became European champion . He set a new, unofficial world record in the final with the new throwing device. The reigning world champion and European Championship third from 1982 Detlef Michel from the GDR won the silver medal. Bronze went to the previous unofficial world record holder Viktor Jewsjukow from the USSR.

Records

Existing records

World record	83.58 m	Viktor Jewsyukov	Leningrad (today St. Petersburg ), Soviet Union (today Russia )	June 8, 1986
European record
Championship record	new spear used for the first time, therefore previous record no longer valid

Comment on the world and European records:
The above-mentioned world / European record was still unofficial due to the recently introduced new spear. Klaus Tafelmeier set the first official world record on September 21, 1986 with 85.74 m in Como , Italy .

First record with a new spear

In the final on August 27, European champion Klaus Tafelmeier set the new European Championship record of 84.76 m , which is now valid for four years . This distance also meant an unofficial world record in the new discipline, which was still young with the new throwing device.  

qualification

Roald Bradstock's 76.52m was 1.36m too short to make it into the final

The young Jan Železný missed the final with his 75.90 m

August 26, 1986, 6:15 p.m.

Thirty participants entered the qualifying round. The qualification distance for direct entry into the final was 78.00 m. Ten athletes exceeded this mark (highlighted in light blue). The final field was filled with the two next placed athletes to twelve throwers (highlighted in light green). So finally 77.88 m had to be achieved for the final.

space	Surname	nation	Width (m)
1	Klaus Tafelmeier	BR Germany	82.68 CR
2	Heino Puuste	Soviet Union	82.54
3	Gerald White	GDR	81.40
4th	Marek Kaleta	Soviet Union	81.32
5	Viktor Jewsyukov	Soviet Union	80.48
6th	Detlef Michel	GDR	79.84
7th	Sejad Krdžalic	Yugoslavia	79.46
8th	Jyrki Blom	Finland	79.02
9	Wolfram Gambke	BR Germany	78.94
10	Stanislaw Górak	Poland	78.32
11	Mick Hill	Great Britain	77.94
12	David Ottley	Great Britain	77.88
13	Einar Vilhjálmsson	Iceland	77.76
14th	Jorma Markus	Finland	77.32
15th	Dag Wennlund	Sweden	76.88
16	Roald Bradstock	Great Britain	76.52
17th	Seppo Räty	Finland	76.00
18th	Jan Železný	Czechoslovakia	75.90
19th	Charlus-Michel Bertimon	France	75.82
20th	Peter Schreiber	BR Germany	75.48
21st	Jean-Paul Lakafia	France	75.24
22nd	Narve Hoff	Norway	75.14
23	Reidar Lorentzen	Norway	73.24
24	Kenneth Petersen	Denmark	73.24
25th	Peter Borglund	Sweden	72.86
26th	László Stefán	Hungary	72.68
27	Jan Olov Johansson	Sweden	72.30
28	Sigurdur Einarsson	Iceland	71.54
29	Pascal Lefèvre	France	69.42
30th	Øystein Slettevold	Norway	69.32

final

• 

  Vice European champion Detlef Michel, reigning world champion and third European championship from  1982

• 

  Gerald Weiß reached number eleven

August 27, 1986, 7:10 p.m.

space	Surname	nation	Width (m)
1	Klaus Tafelmeier	BR Germany	84.76 WRin
2	Detlef Michel	GDR	81.90
3	Viktor Jewsyukov	Soviet Union	81.80
4th	Jyrki Blom	Finland	80.48
5	Heino Puuste	Soviet Union	80.34
6th	Wolfram Gambke	BR Germany	79.88
7th	Sejad Krdžalic	Yugoslavia	79.50
8th	Mick Hill	Great Britain	77.34
9	Marek Kaleta	Soviet Union	77.16
10	David Ottley	Great Britain	77.16
11	Gerald White	GDR	76.24
12	Stanislaw Górak	Poland	74.20

Web links

• European Athletics Championships - Stuttgart 1986 at european-athletics.org, accessed on August 28, 2019
• European Championship 1986 Stuttgart, Men Javelin Throw on todor66.com, accessed September 3, 2019
• Track and Field Statistics, EM 1986 on trackfield.brinkster.net, accessed on September 3, 2019
• European Athletics Championships Zurich 2014 - Statistics Handbook , Men Javelin Throw European Championship 1986 Stuttgart, p. 447 (PDF, 13,363 kB), Spanish / English at european-athletics.org, accessed on September 3, 2019
• Results of all European Athletics Championships - 1986, javelin men on sportschau.de, accessed on September 3, 2019
• 14th European Athletics Championships 1986 in Stuttgart, Germany from ifosta.de, accessed on September 3, 2019

Video

• 1986 European Athletics Championships Men's javelin throw , published August 18, 2019 on youtube.com, accessed September 3, 2019
• 222 Detlef Michel, Javelin , published on October 29, 2012 on youtube.com (English), accessed on September 3, 2019

References and comments

1. ↑ Dr. Jürgen Schiffer: "Why did the senior javelin specification have to be changed?" - Article in IAAF / New Studies in athletics 3 / 4.00 (English) , accessed on September 3, 2019
2. ↑ Progression of the European Outdoor Records, Javelin Men , p. 33 (PDF, 271 kB), Spanish / English, accessed on September 3, 2019