1956 Summer Olympics / Athletics - Javelin Throw (Women)

sport	athletics
discipline	Javelin throw
gender	Women
Attendees	19 athletes from 12 countries
Competition location	Melbourne Cricket Ground
Competition phase	November 28, 1956
Medalists Inese Jaunzeme ( URS )   Marlene Ahrens ( CHL )   Nadezhda Konjajewa ( URS )

The javelin throw of women in the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne was on 28 November 1956 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground discharged. Nineteen athletes took part.

Inese Jaunzeme from the Soviet Union became Olympic champion . She won ahead of the Chilean Marlene Ahrens and Nadeschda Konjajewa from the Soviet Union.

Athletes from Switzerland and Austria did not start. Two German javelin throwers took part, both of whom qualified for the final. Erika Raue took tenth place, Almut Brömmel came thirteenth.

Existing records

World record	55.48 m	Nadezhda Konjajewa ( Soviet Union )	Kiev , Soviet Union (now Ukraine )	August 6, 1954
Olympic record	50.47 m	Dana Zátopková ( Czechoslovakia )	Helsinki Final , Finland	July 24, 1952

Conducting the competition

The athletes entered a qualifying round on November 28th. The required qualification width was 43.00 m. All qualified participants contested the final on 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 28, 10:00 a.m .: Qualification
November 28, 3:30 p.m .: Final
Note: All times are local time in Melbourne (UTC + 10)

qualification

Date: November 28, 1956, 10:00 a.m.

space	Surname	nation	1st attempt	Second attempt	3. Attempt	result	annotation
1	Karen Anderson	United States	49.64 m	-	-	49.64 m
2	Urszula Figwer	Poland	47.76 m	-	-	47.76 m
3	Nadezhda Konjayeva	Soviet Union	47.19 m	-	-	47.19 m
4th	Dana Zátopková	Czechoslovakia	47.05 m	-	-	47.05 m
5	Marlene Ahrens	Chile	46.43 m	-	-	46.43 m
6th	Inese Jaunzeme	Soviet Union	46.19 m	-	-	46.19 m
7th	Marjorie Larney	United States	39.04 m	36.89 m	45.80 m	45.80 m
8th	Yoriko Shida	Japan	38.50 m	45.37 m	-	45.37 m
9	Erzsébet Vígh	Hungary	44.60 m	-	-	44.60 m
10	Almut Brömmel	Germany	44.55 m	-	-	44.55 m
11	Amelia Wershoven	United States	44.39 m	-	-	44.39 m
12	Anna Wojtaszek	Poland	44.08 m	-	-	44.08 m
13	Erika Raue	Germany	43.85 m	54.89 m	-	43.85 m
14th	Ingrid Almqvist	Sweden	43.47 m	-	-	43.47 m
15th	Paola Paternoster	Italy	39.69 m	42.68 m	41.25 m	39.69 m
16	Margaret George	Canada	33.56 m	36.62 m	39.72 m	39.72 m
17th	Maureen Wright	Australia	36.75 m	38.81 m	36.91 m	38.81 m
18th	Heather Innes	Australia	38.72 m	35.57 m	x	38.72 m
19th	June Heath	Australia	35.76 m	38.10 m	x	38.10 m

final

space	Surname	nation	1st attempt	Second attempt	3. Attempt	4th attempt	5th attempt	6th attempt	Bottom line	annotation
1	Inese Jaunzeme	Soviet Union	51.63 m OR	46.62 m	50.46 m	53.40 m OR	49.08 m	53.86 m OR	53.86 m	OR
2	Marlene Ahrens	Chile	47.47 m	49.36 m	44.68 m	46.30 m	50.38 m	39.31 m	50.38 m
3	Nadezhda Konjayeva	Soviet Union	49.48 m	50.28 m	46.24 m	47.39 m	44.51 m	44.40 m	50.28 m
4th	Dana Zátopková	Czechoslovakia	43.52 m	49.83 m	47.07 m	47.59 m	49.81 m	41.59 m	49.83 m
5	Ingrid Almqvist	Sweden	49.74 m	43.58 m	45.06 m	48.24 m	43.06 m	41.17 m	49.74 m
6th	Urszula Figwer	Poland	44.28 m	48.16 m	42.54 m	42.81 m	43.02 m	45.64 m	48.16 m
7th	Erzsébet Vígh	Hungary	46.69 m	48.07 m	47.38 m	not in the final of the six best throwers			48.07 m
8th	Karen Anderson	United States	47.28 m	48.00 m	41.76 m				48.00 m
9	Anna Wojtaszek	Poland	46.92 m	46.27 m	45.36 m				46.92 m
10	Erika Raue	Germany	43.27 m	x	45.87 m				45.87 m
11	Marjorie Larney	United States	41.44 m	45.27 m	42.09 m				45.27 m
12	Yoriko Shida	Japan	44.96 m	43.34 m	37.20 m				44.96 m
13	Almut Brömmel	Germany	40.72 m	42.37 m	44.67 m				44.67 m
14th	Amelia Wershoven	United States	44.29 m	40.45 m	32.59 m				44.29 m

Date: November 28, 1956, 3:30 p.m.

The world record holder and third in the 1954 European Championships , Nadezhda Konjajewa, was slightly favored. But it was close to the top of the world javelin . The medal candidate was clearly the Olympic champion of 1952 and European champion of 1954, Dana Zátopková. Almut Brömmel, who had already defeated both Konjajewa and Zátopková in 1956, was one of the wider favorites.
But Brömmel threw far below form and was finally thirteenth. Konjajewa was also not entirely convincing, but at least won the bronze medal. The Chilean Marlene Ahrens, who had hardly appeared internationally until now, came in second. Inese Jaunzeme, third in the Soviet championships, took the lead with a new Olympic record in the first attempt. She improved the record even further with her throws four and six. She mastered this competition so much that each of her four best lengths would have been enough for the gold medal. The 1952 Olympic champion, Dana Zátopková, took fourth place.

Marlene Ahrens won the first Olympic medal for a Chilean woman.
The Polish Anna Wojtaszek, placed ninth here, started for Australia in 1960 and 1964 under the name Anna Bocson.

literature

• Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 2: 1948–1968, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 1st edition 1969, pp. 161f

Web links

• SportsReference Javelin , accessed October 11, 2017
• Official report p. 362f, engl. (PDF), accessed on October 11, 2017
• Melbourne 1956 Official Olympic Film - Part 4 | Olympic History , range 1:50 min - 2:20 min, published on July 15, 2015 on youtube.com, accessed on October 11, 2017

Individual evidence

1. ^ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Berlin 2009 page 648 ( Memento from June 29, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
2. ↑ ^{a b} Official Report, page 284
3. ↑ Official report p. 363, engl. (PDF), accessed on October 11, 2017
4. ↑ SportsReference (Eng.)