European Athletics Championships 1998 / men's discus throw

17th European Athletics Championships
discipline	Discus throw
gender	Men
Attendees	31 athletes from 19 countries
venue	Budapest
Competition location	Népstadion
Competition phase	August 22nd (qualification) August 23rd (final)
Medalist Lars Riedel ( GER )   Jürgen Schult ( GER )   Virgilijus Alekna ( LTU )

Népstadion in Budapest

The men's discus throw at the 1998 European Athletics Championships was held on August 22nd and 23rd, 1998 in the Népstadion in the Hungarian capital Budapest .

In this competition, the German discus throwers achieved a double victory. European champion was the 1996 Olympic champion and four-time world champion (1991 to 1995) Lars Riedel . He won before the Olympic champion in 1988 , Olympic second in 1992, world champion in 1987 , European champion in 1990 and world record holder Jürgen Schult . Bronze went to the 1997 vice world champion Virgilijus Alekna from Lithuania.

Existing records

World record	74.08 m	Jürgen Schult	Neubrandenburg GDR (now Germany )	June 6, 1986
European record
EM record	67.08 m	Romas Ubartas	EM Stuttgart , Federal Republic of Germany	August 31, 1986

European champion Lars Riedel missed the existing EM record of 67.08 m in the final on 23 August by just one centimeter.  

qualification

August 22, 1998

31 participants competed in two groups for the qualifying round. The qualification distance for the direct entry into the final was 63.00 m. Three athletes exceeded this mark (highlighted in light blue). The final field was filled with the nine next placed athletes to twelve throwers (highlighted in light green). In the end, 60.59 m had to be achieved to take part in the finals.

Group A

space	Surname	nation	Width (m)
1	Jürgen Schult	Germany	63.63
2	Uladsimir Dubrouschtschyk	Belarus	63.12
3	Andreas Seelig	Germany	61.96
4th	Romas Ubartas	Lithuania	61.81
5	Robert Weir	Great Britain	61.36
6th	Virgilijus Alekna	Lithuania	60.81
7th	Libor Malina	Czech Republic	60.69
8th	Nick Sweeney	Ireland	60.36
9	Olav Jenssen	Norway	57.78
10	Timo Tompuri	Finland	57.52
11	Ottó Benczenleitner	Hungary	56.54
12	Jean Pons	France	55.80
13	Kristian Pettersson	Sweden	54.02
14th	Ercüment Olgundeniz	Turkey	53.23
NM	Dmitri Shevchenko	Russia

Aleksander Tammert was eliminated from the qualification with 57.62 m

56.89 m were not enough for Zoltán Kővágó to take part in the final

Group B

space	Surname	nation	Width (m)
1	Róbert Fazekas	Hungary	64.07
2	Lars Riedel	Germany	62.03
3	Diego Fortuna	Italy	61.80
4th	Vaclovas Kidykas	Lithuania	61.05
5	Leonid Cherewko	Belarus	60.59
6th	Vitaly Sidorov	Ukraine	60.34
7th	Glen Smith	Great Britain	58.97
8th	Igor Primc	Slovenia	58.90
9	Andrzej Krawczyk	Poland	58.09
10	Mattias Borrman	Sweden	58.06
11	Aleksander Tammert	Estonia	57.62
12	Zoltán Kővágó	Hungary	56.89
13	Harri Uurainen	Finland	56.78
14th	Jean-Claude Retel	France	55.44
15th	Dragan Mustapic	Croatia	54.73
16	Perris Wilkins	Great Britain	53.16

final

August 23, 1998

Note: The symbol "x" means "invalid".

space	Surname	nation	Result (noun)	1st attempt (m)	2. attempt (m)	3rd attempt (m)	4th attempt (m)	5th attempt (m)	6th attempt (m)
1	Lars Riedel	Germany	67.07	67.07	66.79	66.27	66.16	66.01	x
2	Jürgen Schult	Germany	66.69	65.81	x	x	66.69	x	66.53
3	Virgilijus Alekna	Lithuania	66.46	66.18	63.93	x	66.46	x	x
4th	Róbert Fazekas	Hungary	65.13	62.79	x	62.97	65.13	64.14	x
5	Diego Fortuna	Italy	64.26	61.64	62.86	63.19	62.37	64.26	x
6th	Uladsimir Dubrouschtschyk	Belarus	63.96	62.82	56.10	61.30	63.96	x	60.10
7th	Andreas Seelig	Germany	63.15	61.98	x	x	62.65	x	63.15
8th	Robert Weir	Great Britain	61.92	61.74	61.92	x	61.84	x	59.44
9	Romas Ubartas	Lithuania	61.66	56.78	61.66	60.74	not in the final of the eight best throwers
10	Libor Malina	Czech Republic	60.58	58.88	60.49	60.58
11	Vaclovas Kidykas	Lithuania	60.21	59.29	60.21	x
12	Leonid Cherewko	Belarus	59.13	54.86	59.13	x

• 

  European champion Lars Riedel, 1996 Olympic champion and four-time world champion (1991 to 1995)

• 

  Vice-European Champion Jürgen Schult, 1988 Olympic Champion, 1992 Olympic Second, 1987 World Champion, 1990 European Champion and world record holder

• 

  Bronze medalist Virgilijus Alekna, 1997 vice world champion

• 

  Romas Ubartas finished ninth

Web links

• European Athletics Championships - Budapest 1998 on european-athletics.org, accessed October 13, 2019
• European Championship 1998 Budapest, Men Discus Throw on todor66.com, accessed October 13, 2019
• Track and Field Statistics, EM 1998 on trackfield.brinkster.net, accessed on October 13, 2019
• European Athletics Championships Zurich 2014 - Statistics Handbook , Men Discus Throw European Championship 1998 Budapest, p. 473 (PDF, 13,363 kB), in English at european-athletics.org, accessed on October 13, 2019
• Results of all European Athletics Championships - 1998, discus throw men on sportschau.de, accessed on October 13, 2019
• 17th European Athletics Championships 1998 in Budapest, Hungary from ifosta.de, accessed on October 13, 2019

References and comments

1. ↑ IAAF world records. Discus throw men , accessed October 13, 2019