1956 Summer Olympics / Athletics - Hammer Throw (Men)

sport	athletics
discipline	Hammer throw
gender	Men
Attendees	22 athletes from 14 countries
Competition location	Melbourne Cricket Ground
Competition phase	November 24, 1956
Medalist Hal Connolly ( USA )   Mikhail Krivonosov ( URS )   Anatoly Samotsvetov ( URS )

The men's hammer throw at the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne was played on November 24, 1956 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground . 22 athletes took part.

The American Hal Connolly became Olympic champion . He won ahead of Mikhail Krivonossow and Anatoli Samozwetow , both from the Soviet Union.

Athletes from Germany, Switzerland and Austria did not start.

Existing records

World record	68.54 m	Hal Connolly ( USA )	Los Angeles , USA	November 2, 1956
Olympic record	60.34 m	József Csermák ( Hungary )	Helsinki Final , Finland	July 24, 1952

Conducting the competition

The athletes competed in a qualifying round on November 24th. The required qualification distance was 54.00 meters. 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 24, 10:00 a.m .: Qualification
November 24, 2:30 p.m .: Final

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

qualification

The Norwegian Sverre Strandli reached eighth place in the final.

space	Surname	nation	1st attempt	Second attempt	3. Attempt	result	annotation
1	Anatoly Samotsvetov	Soviet Union	59.53 m	-	-	59.53 m
2	Krešimir Račić	Yugoslavia	59.06 m	-	-	59.06 m
3	Hal Connolly	United States	59.05 m	-	-	59.05 m
4th	Alfons Niklas	Poland	52.11 m	58.46 m	-	58.46 m
5	Tadeusz Ruth	Poland	58.07 m	-	-	58.07 m
6th	József Csermák	Hungary	57.95 m	-	-	57.95 m
7th	Albert Hall	United States	57.50 m	-	-	57.50 m
8th	Dmytro Jehorow	Soviet Union	57.03 m	-	-	57.03 m
9	Sverre Strandli	Norway	56.32 m	-	-	56.32 m
10	Birger Asplund	Sweden	55.03 m	-	-	55.03 m
11	Peter Allday	Great Britain	54.98 m	-	-	54.98 m
	Guy Husson	France
13	Don Anthony	Great Britain	53.10 m	54.89 m	-	54.89 m
14th	Muhammad Iqbal	Pakistan	54.59 m	-	-	54.59 m
15th	Mikhail Krivonosov	Soviet Union	54.53 m	-	-	54.53 m
16	Song Gyo-sik	South Korea	53.30 m	x	53.75 m	53.75 m
17th	Yoshio Kojima	Japan	52.67 m	46.62 m	46.23 m	52.67 m
18th	Alejandro Díaz	Chile	x	52.23 m	51.33 m	52.23 m
19th	Charlie Morris	Australia	x	49.35 m	x	49.35 m
20th	Neville Gadsden	Australia	x	x	48.84 m	48.84 m
21st	Martin Crowe	Australia	45.76 m	48.25 m	48.43 m	48.43 m
22nd	Fumio Kamamoto	Japan	40.72 m	x	44.70 m	44.70 m

Date: November 24, 1956, 10:00 a.m.

The actually nominated Cliff Blair helped reporter Jerry Nason from the Boston Globe with his reports from Melbourne. The US team suspended Blair for violating the amateur statutes. A replacement for him was not nominated, so that the US team was only represented here with two throwers.

final

space	Surname	nation	1st attempt	Second attempt	3. Attempt	4th attempt	5th attempt	6th attempt	Bottom line	annotation
1	Hal Connolly	United States	x	60.92 m	62.65 m	61.76 m	63.19 m OR	x	63.19 m	OR
2	Mikhail Krivonosov	Soviet Union	60.59 m	63.00 m OR	63.03 m OR	x	x	x	63.03 m
3	Anatoly Samotsvetov	Soviet Union	62.10 m OR	58.13 m	61.94 m	60.22 m	59.20 m	62.56 m	62.56 m
4th	Albert Hall	United States	57.76 m	61.83 m	x	61.58 m	x	61.96 m	61.96 m
5	József Csermák	Hungary	58.27 m	58.43 m	60.70 m	x	59.10 m	x	60.70 m
6th	Krešimir Račić	Yugoslavia	57.99 m	60.36 m	x	x	58.07 m	55.09 m	60.36 m
7th	Dmytro Jehorow	Soviet Union	60.22 m	x	x	not in the final of the six best throwers			60.22 m
8th	Sverre Strandli	Norway	58.62 m	58.49 m	59.21 m				59.21 m
9	Peter Allday	Great Britain	57.78 m	57.06 m	58.00 m				58.00 m
10	Alfons Niklas	Poland	57.70 m	x	x				57.70 m
11	Muhammad Iqbal	Pakistan	56.45 m	55.24 m	56.94 m				56.94 m
12	Don Anthony	Great Britain	x	55.22 m	56.72 m				56.72 m
13	Guy Husson	France	x	x	55.02 m				55.02 m
14th	Tadeusz Ruth	Poland	x	x	53.43 m				53.43 m
ogV	Birger Asplund	Sweden	x	x	x					without space

Date: November 24, 1956, 2:30 p.m.

There were two favorites for this competition: the 1954 European champion , Mikhail Krivonossow from the USSR, and the American Harold Connolly, who dethroned the Soviet thrower as a world record holder shortly before the games .

The final turned into an exciting three-way battle. First, Anatoly Samozwetow took the lead with a new Olympic record . In the second attempt, Krivonossow threw further ninety centimeters, and Connolly also pushed himself past Samotsvetow into second place in round three. Krivonossow was able to improve his distance with the third attempt by another three centimeters, but then failed to make a valid attempt. In the fifth round, Connolly got his best throw and he took the lead with sixteen centimeters ahead of Kriwonossow. Although Samozvetow was able to improve his distance again with his last attempt, it was not enough to overtake Krivonossow. With that the medals were distributed.
The fourth-placed US thrower Albert Hall also threw further in three attempts than the previous Olympic record of the Hungarian József Csermák. This in turn surpassed his own previous Olympic record in the third round. This time, however, that was only enough for fifth place. The sixth-placed Yugoslav Krešimir Račić surpassed this earlier record from the Helsinki final .

Hal Connolly made headlines not only because of his Olympic victory. His relationship with the Czechoslovak discus winner , Olga Fikotová , aroused public interest. A few months later, the two married in Prague . a. Emil Zatopek .

Mikhail Krivonossow and Anatoly Samozvetow won the first Soviet medals in hammer throw .

literature

• Ekkehard zur Megede : The History of Olympic Athletics. Volume 2: 1948-1968. 1st edition. Verlag Bartels & Wernitz, Berlin 1969, pp. 146-148.

Web links

• SportsReference Hammerwurf , accessed October 6, 2017
• Official report p. 340f, engl. (PDF), accessed on October 6, 2017
• Melbourne 1956 Official Olympic Film - Part 4 | Olympic History , range 7:02 min - 9:35 min, published July 15, 2015 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. ↑ SportsReference (Eng.)
4. ↑ Official report p. 340, engl. (PDF), accessed on October 6, 2017.
5. ↑ SportsReference (Eng.)