1948 Summer Olympics / Athletics - Hammer Throw (Men)

sport	athletics
discipline	Hammer throw
gender	Men
Attendees	24 athletes from 16 countries
Competition location	Wembley Stadium
Competition phase	July 31, 1948
Medalist Imre Németh ( HUN )   Ivan Gubijan ( YUG )   Robert Bennett ( USA )

The men's hammer throw at the 1948 Olympic Games in London was held on July 31, 1948 at Wembley Stadium . 24 athletes took part.

The Olympic champion was the Hungarian Imre Németh ahead of the Yugoslav Ivan Gubijan . Bronze went to the American Robert Bennett .

Existing records

• World record : 59.02 m - Imre Németh ( Hungary ), Tata , July 14, 1948
• Olympic record : 56.49 m - Karl Hein ( Germany ), Berlin final , August 3, 1936

Conducting the competition

Participants competed in a qualifying round on July 31. The qualification distance required was 49.00 meters. All athletes who managed this distance qualified for the final on the same day. If fewer than 12 athletes have made the distance, the final field was filled up to 12 throwers based on the distances.

Note: The directly qualified athletes are highlighted in light blue. Only the best is recorded. The order and length of further attempts in qualification are unknown.

qualification

July 31, 1948, 10:00 a.m.

Group A

space	Surname	nation	Expanse	annotation
1	Bo Ericson	Sweden	52.28 m
2	Svend Aage Frederiksen	Denmark	51.35 m
3	Robert Bennett	United States	51.13 m
4th	Henry Dreyer	United States	50.37 m
5	Duncan Clark	Great Britain	49.76 m
6th	Samuel Felton	United States	49.20 m
7th	Poul Cederquist	Denmark	48.16 m
8th	Ewan Douglas	Great Britain	47.77 m
9	Norman Drake	Great Britain	47.75 m
10	Dan Coyle	Ireland	47.11 m
11	Juan Fusé	Argentina	46.95 m
12	Edmundo Zúñiga	Chile	44.03 m

Group B

space	Surname	nation	Expanse	annotation
1	Imre Németh	Hungary	54.02 m
2	Einar Söderqvist	Sweden	52.39 m
3	Teseo Taddia	Italy	51.06 m
4th	Hans Houtzager	Netherlands	50.91 m
5	Ivan Gubijan	Yugoslavia	50.44 m
6th	Lauri Tamminen	Finland	49.82 m
7th	Gin Gang-hwan	South Korea	49.49 m
8th	Reino Kuivamäki	Finland	48.99 m
9	Pierre Legrain	France	47.60 m
10	Jaroslav Knotek	Czechoslovakia	42.46 m
11	Nat Singh Somnath	India	41.36 m
12	Francisco González Suaste	Mexico	39.50 m

final

July 31, 1948, 3:30 p.m.

Note: The trial series are only known for the medalists. For the other finalists, only the best scores are submitted.

The Hungarian Imre Németh, who set a world record two weeks before the games, was considered a high favorite in the absence of German throwers. Németh studied hammer throwers from the school of the German trainer Christian Gehrmann and based his technique on it. Only the Swedish European champion Bo Ericson were given outsider opportunities. In the first attempt, the Hungarian initially took the lead. But the Yugoslav Ivan Gubijan and the US thrower Robert Bennett passed him with their next attempts. In the last round, Németh threw the hammer to 56.07 m and won the competition. Karl Hein's Olympic record from 1936 remained untouched.

Imre Németh achieved the first Hungarian Olympic victory in this discipline. He later became president of the Hungarian Athletics Federation.

Ivan Gubijan won the first Yugoslav medal in this discipline. It was also the first medal in Yugoslavia in athletics.

space	Surname	nation	1st attempt	Second attempt	3. Attempt	4th attempt	5th attempt	6th attempt	Best	annotation
1	Imre Németh	Hungary	53.59 m	55.44 m	54.94 m	50.05 m	x	56.07 m	56.07 m
2	Ivan Gubijan	Yugoslavia	x	x	54.27 m	51.76 m	54.22 m	x	54.27 m
3	Robert Bennett	United States	52.53 m	51.11 m	52.08 m	53.73 m	51.21 m	49.81 m	53.73 m
4th	Samuel Felton	United States							53.66 m
5	Lauri Tamminen	Finland							53.08 m
6th	Bo Ericson	Sweden							52.98 m
7th	Teseo Taddia	Italy							51.74 m
8th	Einar Söderqvist	Sweden							51.48 m
9	Henry Dreyer	United States							51.37 m
10	Svend Aage Frederiksen	Denmark							50.07 m
11	Duncan Clark	Great Britain							48.35 m
12	Hans Houtzager	Netherlands							45.69 m
13	Gin Gang-hwan	South Korea							43.93 m

literature

• Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 2: 1948–1968, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 1st edition 1969, p. 39

Web links

• SportsReference Hammerwurf , accessed on 23 August 2017
• Official report p. 273, engl. (PDF), accessed on August 23, 2017

Video

• The winner hammer throw from 48 by Imre Nemeth , published March 8, 2008 on youtube.com, accessed August 23, 2017

Individual evidence

1. ^ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Berlin 2009 page 558 ( Memento from June 29, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
2. ^ Official report "Athletic Timetable" p. 240, engl. (PDF)
3. ^ Official report "Athletic Timetable" p. 240, engl. (PDF)
4. ^ Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 2: 1948–1968, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 1st edition 1969, p. 39
5. ↑ SportsReference (Eng.)