1956 Summer Olympics / Athletics - Javelin Throw (Men)

sport	athletics
discipline	Javelin throw
gender	Men
Attendees	21 athletes from 12 countries
Competition location	Melbourne Cricket Ground
Competition phase	November 26, 1956
Medalist Egil Danielsen ( NOR )   Janusz Sidło ( POL )   Viktor Zybulenko ( URS )

The men's javelin throw at the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne was played on November 26, 1956 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground . 21 athletes took part.

The Olympic champion was the Norwegian Egil Danielsen with a new world record . He won ahead of Poland's Janusz Sidło and Wiktor Zybulenko from the Soviet Union.

Athletes from Switzerland and Austria did not start. Two German javelin throwers took part, both of which qualified for the final. Herbert Koschel took fourth place in the final, Heinrich Will came in ninth.

Existing records

World record	83.66 m	Janusz Sidło ( Poland )	Milan Italy	June 30, 1956
Olympic record	73.78 m	Cy Young ( USA )	Helsinki Finland Final	July 24, 1952

Conducting the competition

The athletes competed in a qualifying round on November 24th. The required qualification distance was 66.00 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 26, 10
a.m .: Qualification November 26, 3:25 p.m .: Final

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

qualification

Janusz Sidło from Poland won silver.

Date: November 26, 1956, 10:00 a.m.

space	Surname	nation	1st attempt	Second attempt	3. Attempt	result	annotation
1	Cy Young	United States	63.30 m	74.76 m OR	-	74.76 m	OR
2	Egil Danielsen	Norway	74.15 m OR	-	-	74.15 m
3	Vladimir Kuznetsov	Soviet Union	64.88 m	73.89 m	-	73.89 m
4th	Herbert Koschel	Germany	72.90 m	-	-	72.90 m
5	Alexander Gorshkov	Soviet Union	72.31 m	-	-	72.31 m
6th	Janusz Sidło	Poland	72.00 m	-	-	72.00 m
7th	Michel Macquet	France	71.23 m	-	-	71.23 m
8th	Viktor Zybulenko	Soviet Union	71.20 m	-	-	71.20 m
9	Benjamin Garcia	United States	71.17 m	-	-	71.17 m
10	Heinrich Will	Germany	52.56 m	64.68 m	70.38 m	70.38 m
11	Giovanni Lievore	Italy	69.64 m	-	-	69.64 m
12	Phil Conley	United States	68.60 m	-	-	69.64 m
13	Jan Kopyto	Poland	68.19 m	54.89 m	-	68.19 m
14th	Muhammad Nawaz	Pakistan	59.44 m	61.62 m	67.57 m	68.19 m
15th	Sándor Krasznai	Hungary	61.87 m	67.39 m	-	67.39 m
16	Bob Grant	Australia	x	65.76 m	61.50 m	65.76 m
17th	Jalal Khan	Pakistan	65.35 m	x	61.61 m	65.35 m
18th	Léon Syrovatski	France	61.06 m	62.65 m	64.58 m	64.58 m
19th	Reinaldo Oliver	Puerto Rico	55.85 m	52.42 m	63.68 m	63.68 m
20th	Peter Cullen	Great Britain	x	61.37 m	62.77 m	62.77 m
21st	James Achurch	Australia	57.09 m	43.43 m	x	57.09 m

final

space	Surname	nation	1st attempt	Second attempt	3. Attempt	4th attempt	5th attempt	6th attempt	Bottom line	annotation
1	Egil Danielsen	Norway	72.60 m	68.49 m	70.75 m	85.71 m WR	72.60 m	68.86 m	85.71 m	WR
2	Janusz Sidło	Poland	72.78 m	x	79.98 m OR	79.70 m	75.79 m	73.50 m	79.98 m
3	Viktor Zybulenko	Soviet Union	74.96 m OR	75.84 m OR	71.74 m	79.50 m	72.98 m	63.24 m	79.50 m
4th	Herbert Koschel	Germany	74.68 m	60.80 m	69.88 m	61.66 m	x	61.29 m	74.68 m
5	Jan Kopyto	Poland	71.82 m	73.32 m	73.02 m	74.28 m	57.20 m	73.27 m	74.28 m
6th	Giovanni Lievore	Italy	71.26 m	72.88 m	67.46 m	65.58 m	64.87 m	55.78 m	72.88 m
7th	Michel Macquet	France	70.03 m	70.11 m	71.84 m	not in the final of the six best throwers			71.84 m
8th	Alexander Gorshkov	Soviet Union	x	x	70.32 m				70.32 m
9	Heinrich Will	Germany	69.86 m	67.39 m	x				69.86 m
10	Phil Conley	United States	69.74 m	60.92 m	69.59 m				69.74 m
11	Cy Young	United States	x	66.32 m	68.64 m				68.64 m
12	Vladimir Kuznetsov	Soviet Union	65.65 m	62.80 m	67.14 m				67.14 m
13	Sándor Krasznai	Hungary	66.33 m	60.03 m	59.78 m				66.33 m
14th	Muhammad Nawaz	Pakistan	62.55 m	59.42 m	61.13 m				62.55 m
ogV	Benjamin Garcia	United States	x	x	x					without space

Date: November 26, 1956, 3:25 p.m.

The American Bud Held improved the almost 15-year-old world record in javelin throwing in 1953. This was made possible by his own collaboration in the development of the aerodynamics of the javelin design. The Pole Janusz Sidło threw again in June 1956 and was considered a top favorite for this competition. The 1952 Olympic champion Cyrus Young from the USA and the Norwegian Egil Danielsen were also considered medal candidates. Although he improved his own Olympic record in qualifying , Young played no role in the final score and finished eleventh.

The competition was characterized by constantly changing gusty winds. That didn't make throwing easy for the athletes. Soviet athlete Viktor Zybulenko set the first signs in the final when he beat Young's record in the first attempt and threw again in the second attempt. In the third attempt, Sidło countered with a four meter further throw, two centimeters below the 80 meter mark. In the fourth attempt, Danielsen caught a favorable wind in what was for him a happy moment, which he was able to use extremely successfully. He threw the spear in a flatter orbit and exceeded the pole by exactly 5.73 meters. This distance even set a new world record . In the same round, Zybulenko also had his best attempt, but he was only eight inches closer to Sidło. Danielsen was Olympic champion, Sidło won the silver and Zybulenko the bronze medal.

At the end of the preliminaries, Egil Danielsen actually wanted to pack his things in the third attempt, because he assumed he would be seventh and thus not be qualified for the final of the six best throwers. But he quickly realized that he was wrong and of course carried on.

Egil Danielsen won the first Norwegian gold medal in the javelin throw.

Janusz Sidło and Wiktor Zybulenko also won their countries' first medals in this discipline.

literature

• Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 2: 1948–1968, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 1st edition 1969, pp. 148–150

Web links

• SportsReference Javelin , accessed October 6, 2017
• Official report p. 338f, engl. (PDF), accessed on October 6, 2017
• Melbourne 1956 Olympic Games - Official Olympic Film | Olympic History , range 1:19:16 min - 1:20:49 min, published on July 22, 2015 on youtube.com, accessed on October 6, 2017

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Berlin 2009, page 559 ( 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. 339, engl. (PDF), accessed on October 6, 2017
4. ↑ SportsReference (Eng.)
5. ↑ Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 1: 1896-1936, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 2nd edition 1970, p. 149