1956 Summer Olympics / Athletics - Discus Throw (Men)

sport	athletics
discipline	Discus throw
gender	Men
Attendees	20 athletes from 15 countries
Competition location	Melbourne Cricket Ground
Competition phase	November 27, 1956
Medalist Al Oerter ( USA )   Fortune Gordien ( USA )   Des Koch ( USA )

The men's discus throw at the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne was played on November 27, 1956 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground . Twenty athletes took part.

In this discipline there was a US triple success. Al Oerter won ahead of Fortune Gordien and Des Koch .

Athletes from Germany, Switzerland and Austria did not start.

Existing records

Olympic Champion Al Oerter (USA)

Adolfo Consolini (ITA) reached sixth place in the final.

World record	59.28 m	Fortune Gordien ( USA )	Pasadena , USA	August 22, 1953
Olympic record	55.03 m	Sim Iness ( USA )	Helsinki Final , Finland	July 22, 1952

Conducting the competition

The athletes competed in a qualifying round on November 27th. The required qualification width was 47.00 m. For all qualified participants the final took place in the afternoon of the same day. The results achieved in the qualifying round were not included in the further course of the competition. In the final, each athlete was initially entitled to three attempts. The best six finalists could then make another three attempts.

Note: The qualified athletes are highlighted in light blue. The best results in the qualification and in the final are printed in bold.

Time schedule

November 27, 10:00
a.m .: Qualification November 27, 3:25 p.m .: Final

Note: All times are local Melbourne time (UTC + 10)

qualification

Date: November 27, 1956, 10:00 a.m.

Mesulame Rakura was the Fiji Islands ' first athlete to compete in the Olympics.

space	Surname	nation	1st attempt	Second attempt	3. Attempt	result	annotation
1	Al Oerter	United States	51.90 m	-	-	51.90 m
2	Stephen du Plessis	South African Union	50.69 m	-	-	50.69 m
3	Adolfo Consolini	Italy	49.93 m	-	-	49.93 m
4th	Kim Buchanzov	Soviet Union	49.65 m	-	-	49.65 m
5	Mark Pharaoh	Great Britain	48.98 m	-	-	48.98 m
6th	Boris Matveev	Soviet Union	43.62 m	48.97 m	-	48.97 m
7th	Erik Uddebom	Sweden	48.44 m	-	-	48.44 m
8th	Mesulame Rakuro	Fiji	48.21 m	-	-	48.21 m
9	Oto Grigalka	Soviet Union	48.11 m	-	-	48.11 m
10	Dako Radosevic	Yugoslavia	47.93 m	-	-	47.93 m
11	Günther Kruse	Argentina	46.28 m	48.87 m	-	48.87 m
12	Fortune Gordia	United States	47.67 m	-	-	47.67 m
13	Hernán Haddad	Chile	47.48 m	-	-	47.48 m
14th	Ferenc Klics	Hungary	47.31 m	-	-	47.31 m
15th	Gerry Carr	Great Britain	47.15 m	-	-	47.15 m
16	The cook	United States	47.14 m	-	-	47.14 m
17th	Tadeusz Ruth	Poland	42.69 m	46.62 m	46.23 m	46.62 m
18th	Pierre Alard	France	38.24 m	46.18 m	44.36 m	46.18 m
19th	Muhammad Ayub	Pakistan	40.93 m	41.79 m	44.88 m	44.88 m
20th	Ves Balodis	Australia	44.24 m	x	42.36 m	44.24 m

final

space	Surname	nation	1st attempt	Second attempt	3. Attempt	4th attempt	5th attempt	6th attempt	Bottom line	annotation
1	Al Oerter	United States	56.36 m	53.81 m	53.22 m	55.08 m	53.28 m	54.93 m	56.36 m	OR
2	Fortune Gordia	United States	54.75 m	49.18 m	51.40 m	53.84 m	52.75 m	54.81 m	54.81 m
3	The cook	United States	50.53 m	x	53.55 m	53.64 m	54.40 m	54.03 m	54.40 m
4th	Mark Pharaoh	Great Britain	52.52 m	x	52.36 m	49.85 m	54.27 m	53.16 m	54.27 m
5	Oto Grigalka	Soviet Union	51.25 m	50.09 m	52.37 m	49.44 m	x	50.13 m	52.37 m
6th	Adolfo Consolini	Italy	51.92 m	52.21 m	52.13 m	x	51.29 m	52.01 m	52.21 m
7th	Ferenc Klics	Hungary	51.75 m	51.82 m	51.61 m	not in the final of the six best throwers			51.82 m
8th	Dako Radosevic	Yugoslavia	50.99 m	51.26 m	51.69 m				51.69 m
9	Boris Matveev	Soviet Union	50.59 m	49.63 m	51.38 m				51.38 m
10	Gerry Carr	Great Britain	48.03 m	50.72 m	48.98 m				50.72 m
11	Günther Kruse	Argentina	49.12 m	45.92 m	49.98 m				49.98 m
12	Kim Buchanzov	Soviet Union	48.58 m	47.75 m	46.86 m				48.58 m
13	Stephen du Plessis	South African Union	48.49 m	46.23 m	43.31 m				48.49 m
14th	Erik Uddebom	Sweden	48.28 m	47.89 m	44.72 m				48.28 m
15th	Mesulame Rakuro	Fiji	46.45 m	47.24 m	44.60 m				47.24 m
16	Hernán Haddad	Chile	x	46.00 m	x				46.00 m

Date: November 27, 1956, 3:25 p.m.

World record holder Fortune Gordien, who u. a. who had won the US Olympic eliminations was a clear favorite for this competition. Medal chances were also given to the winner of 1948 and three-time European champion Adolfo Consolini from Italy. The previously little known Al Oerter had shown mediocre performance in the run-up and seemed far from the performance level of the world's best.
But in his first attempt this outsider reached 56.36 m, which meant a new personal best and a new Olympic record . Gordien struggled in vain to outstrip Oerter. In the end he had to be content with silver, his compatriot Des Koch won bronze in front of the British Mark Pharaoh and the Soviet thrower Oto Grigalka. "Old master" Consolini reached sixth place.

In the 13th Olympic final, Alfred Oerter threw the discus for the ninth US victory.

literature

• Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 2: 1948–1968, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 1st edition 1969, pp. 145f

Web links

• SportsReference Discus Throw , accessed October 6, 2017
• Official report p. 336f, engl. (PDF), accessed on October 6, 2017
• Al Oerter - Lancer du disque - Melbourne 1956 , published July 11, 2012 on youtube.com, accessed October 6, 2017

Individual evidence

1. ^ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Berlin 2009 page 558 ( Memento from June 29, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
2. ↑ ^{a b} Official report p. 284, engl. (PDF), accessed on October 6, 2017
3. ↑ Official report p. 337, engl. (PDF), accessed on October 6, 2017
4. ↑ SportsReference (Eng.)