World Athletics Championships 1997 / Men's discus throw

6th World Athletics Championships
discipline	Discus throw
gender	Men
Attendees	41 athletes from 30 countries
venue	Athens
Competition location	Olympic Stadium
Competition phase	August 8th (qualification) August 10th (final)
Medalist Lars Riedel ( GER )   Virgilijus Alekna ( LTU )   Jürgen Schult ( GER )

The Athens Olympic Stadium in 2014

The men's discus throw at the 1997 World Athletics Championships was held on August 8 and 10, 1997 in the Olympic Stadium in the Greek capital, Athens .

In this competition the German discus throwers won two medals, gold and bronze. Lars Riedel , the 1996 Olympic champion, became world champion for the third time in a row . Silver went to Virgilijus Alekna from Lithuania , who won his first of many subsequent international medals here. The world champion from 1987 , world championship third from 1993 , Olympic champion from 1988 , Olympic second from 1992 , European champion from 1990 , European championship third from 1994 and world record holder Jürgen Schult took the bronze place .

Existing records

World record	74.08 m	Jürgen Schult	Neubrandenburg , GDR (now Germany )	June 6, 1986
World Cup record	68.76 m	Lars Riedel	World Cup 1995 in Gothenburg , Sweden	September 11, 1995

The existing world championship record was not set and not improved at these world championships.

Legend

Brief overview of the meaning of the symbols - also commonly used in other publications:

-	waived
x	invalid
r	Competition not continued (retired)

qualification

41 participants competed in two groups for the qualifying round. The qualification distance for the direct entry into the final was 63.00 m. Seven athletes exceeded this mark (highlighted in light blue). The final field was filled with the five next-placed athletes to twelve throwers (highlighted in light green). So finally 61.82 m had to be achieved for the final.

Group A

Costel Grasu did not make it into the final with his 56.70 m

August 8, 1997, 5:30 p.m.

space	Surname	nation	Result (noun)	1st attempt (m)	2. attempt (m)	3rd attempt (m)
1	Jürgen Schult	Germany	64.60	62.60	64.60	-
2	Vitaly Sidorov	Russia	63.08	63.08	-	-
3	Wassil Kapzjuch	Belarus	63.06	63.06	-	-
4th	Andreas Seelig	Germany	62.94	60.44	x	62.94
5	Aleksander Tammert	Estonia	62.18	59.60	59.64	62.18
6th	Jason Tunks	Canada	61.82	60.74	61.82	60.62
7th	Alexis Elizalde	Cuba	61.48	56.38	61.48	61.22
8th	Vaclovas Kidykas	Lithuania	61.40	x	61.40	x
9	Andy Bloom	United States	60.74	59.38	60.74	x
10	Olav Jenssen	Norway	60.52	x	57.86	60.52
11	Igor Primc	Slovenia	59.98	54.26	59.98	57.96
12	Ian Winchester	New Zealand	59.70	59.66	59.00	59.70
13	Jo Van Daele	Belgium	58.66	55.72	58.66	58.66
14th	Alexander Borichevsky	Russia	57.90	57.90	57.56	x
15th	Yu Wenge	People's Republic of China	57.12	55.46	57.14	56.36
16	Costel Grasu	Romania	56.70	56.70	55.16	x
17th	Christos Papadopoulos	Greece	56.44	56.44	56.42	r
18th	Shakti Singh	India	56.28	x	50.42	56.28
19th	Glen Smith	Great Britain	54.40	54.40	53.30	x
20th	Dashdendev Makhashiri	Mongolia	52.12	52.12	x	49.42
DNS	Duke Uperesa	American Samoa

Group B

As in the shot put , Kjell Ove Hauge (photo: 2014) - here with 57.00 m - did not reach the final

August 8, 1997, 7:30 p.m.

space	Surname	nation	Result (noun)	1st attempt (m)	2. attempt (m)	3rd attempt (m)
1	Lars Riedel	Germany	66.46	66.46	-	-
2	Virgilijus Alekna	Lithuania	65.22	61.34	60.30	65.22
3	Adam Setliff	United States	63.72	63.72	-	-
4th	John Godina	United States	63.48	x	63.48	-
5	Uladsimir Dubrouschtschyk	Belarus	62.30		62.30	x
6th	Robert Weir	Great Britain	62.26	62.26	60.38	60.98
7th	Frits Potgieter	South Africa	61.30	61.30	x	x
8th	Pieter van der Kruk	Netherlands	60.16	55.82	60.16	r
9	Diego Fortuna	Italy	60.06	60.06	59.66	60.00
10	Leonid Cherewko	Belarus	60.06	60.06	x	x
11	Sergey Lyakhov	Russia	59.72	59.64	59.72	59.18
12	Jean Pons	France	59.46	55.84	58.70	59.46
13	Li Shaojie	People's Republic of China	58.24	x	58.24	58.24
14th	Libor Malina	Czech Republic	58.00	x	58.00	56.52
15th	Mickaël Conjungo	Central African Republic	57.82	57.82	56.66	57.44
16	Attila Horváth	Hungary	57.72	x	57.72	x
17th	Marcelo Pugliese	Argentina	57.34	55.22	x	57.34
18th	Kjell Ove Hauge	Norway	57.00	54.72	57.00	x
19th	Ramón Jiménez Gaona	Paraguay	52.96	x	x	52.96
20th	Wansawang Sawasdee	Thailand	47.98	47.98	46.00	r
21st	Robert McNabb	Cook Islands	41.00	40.46	x	41.00

final

August 10, 1997, 6:00 p.m.

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	68.54	65.48	68.24	68.54	x	x	66.80
2	Virgilijus Alekna	Lithuania	66.70	62.44	66.70	63.20	63.12	x	x
3	Jürgen Schult	Germany	66.14	66.14	65.20	65.54	x	62.34	64.94
4th	Uladsimir Dubrouschtschyk	Belarus	66.12	62.98	60.30	65.36	65.46	62.44	66.12
5	John Godina	United States	65.40	65.40	x	57.30	64.82	64.92	64.30
6th	Andreas Seelig	Germany	64.48	63.00	64.48	62.80	x	64.12	63.64
7th	Adam Setliff	United States	63.44	63.32	62.80	x	64.12	x	63.44
8th	Robert Weir	Great Britain	63.06	63.06	60.18	61.40	62.22	x	58.70
9	Jason Tunks	Canada	62.30	59.16	62.30	61.88	not in the final of the eight best throwers
10	Vitaly Sidorov	Russia	60.32	60.32	59.68	x
11	Wassil Kapzjuch	Belarus	60.12	60.12	x	x
12	Aleksander Tammert	Estonia	59.44	59.44	59.18	58.46

• 

  Lars Riedel (here in 2016) - after his Olympic victory in 1996, world champion for the third time in a row

• 

  Vice world champion Virgilijus Alekna won his first of many subsequent international medals here

• 

  Bronze medalist Jürgen Schult added to his already very impressive collection of medals

• 

  Aleksander Tammert (photo: 2013) came twelfth here - some good placements should follow later

Video

• Men's Discus Final - 1997 IAAF World Championships on youtube.com, accessed June 13, 2020

Web links

• 6th IAAF World Championships In Athletics , accessed June 9, 2020
• Men Discus Throw Athletics VI World Championship 1997 Athens (GRE) on todor66.com, accessed June 23, 2020
• Results in the IAAF Statistics Handbook for the 2019 World Cup in Doha, Men Discus Throw, Athens 1997, p. 191 (PDF; 10.3 MB, English), accessed on June 23, 2020

References and comments

1. ↑ IAAF world records. Discus throw men on rekorde-im-sport.de, accessed on June 23, 2020