1980 Summer Olympics / Athletics - Discus Throw (Women)

sport	athletics
discipline	Discus throw
gender	Women
Attendees	18 athletes from 11 countries
Competition location	Luzhniki Olympic Stadium
Competition phase	July 31, 1980 (qualifying) August 1, 1980 (final)
Medalists Evelin Jahl ( GDR )   Marija Petkowa ( BUL )   Tatiana Lessowaja ( URS )

The women's discus throw at the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow was held on July 31 and August 1, 1980 in the Luzhniki Olympic Stadium. Eighteen athletes took part.

Olympic champion was defending champion Evelin Jahl from the GDR. She won ahead of the Bulgarian Marija Petkowa and Tatiana Lessowaja from the Soviet Union.

In addition to the Olympic champion, Gisela Beyer and Margitta Pufe competed for the GDR . Both reached the final. Beyer was fourth, Pufe fifth.
Throwers from Switzerland, Austria and Liechtenstein did not take part. Athletes from the Federal Republic of Germany were also not there because of the Olympic boycott.

Existing records

World record	71.80 m	Marija Petkowa ( Bulgaria )	Sofia , Bulgaria	July 13, 1980
Olympic record	69.00 m	Evelin Jahl - under the name Evelin Schlaak ( GDR )	Final of Montreal , Canada	July 29, 1976

Note: Evelin Jahl started in Montreal under her maiden name Schlaak.

Conducting the competition

The athletes entered a qualifying round on July 31st. The qualification distance for the direct entry into the final on August 1st was 60.00 meters. Since only eight throwers reached this distance, the final field was filled to twelve participants according to the next best distance.

Time schedule

July 31, 10 a.m .: Qualification
August 1, 5 p.m .: Final

Note: All times are local time Moscow ( UTC + 3 )

Gisela Beyer, GDR

The directly qualified athletes are highlighted in light blue, the others in light green. |}

qualification

Date: July 31, 1980, 10:00 a.m.

space	Surname	nation	1st attempt	Second attempt	3. Attempt	Expanse	annotation
1	Margitta Pufe	GDR	65.52 m	-	-	65.52 m
2	Maria Petkova	Bulgaria	65.02 m	-	-	65.02 m
3	Gisela Beyer	GDR	62.86 m	-	-	62.86 m
4th	Tatiana Lessovaya	Soviet Union	62.20 m	-	-	62.20 m
5	Svetla Boschkowa	Bulgaria	58.96 m	60.84 m	-	60.84 m
6th	Florența Tacu	Romania	60.40 m	-	-	60.40 m
7th	Galina Murašova	Soviet Union	54.56 m	60.32 m	-	60.32 m
8th	Evelin Jahl	GDR	57.86 m	60.22 m	-	60.22 m
9	Zdeňka Bartoňová	Czechoslovakia	x	59.48 m	57.78 m	59.48 m
10	Meg Ritchie	Great Britain	58.66 m	x	x	58.66 m
11	Carmen Romero	Cuba	x	x	58.60 m	58.60 m
12	Ágnes Herczegh	Hungary	57.80 m	53.74 m	56.86 m	57.80 m
13	Maria Cristina Betancourt	Cuba	54.16 m	x	57.62 m	57.62 m
14th	Katalin Csőke	Hungary	x	56.84 m	57.38 m	57.38 m
15th	Gael Mulhall	Australia	54.90 m	54.58 m	53.32 m	54.90 m
16	Faina Melnik	Soviet Union	51.64 m	53.76 m	x	53.76 m
ogV	Ludovina de Oliveira	Mozambique					without space
DNS	Ulla Lundholm	Finland

final

Date: August 1, 1980, 5:00 p.m.

The favorites for the Olympic victory were the 1976 Olympic champion - at that time under her name Evelin Schlaak - Evelin Jahl and the Bulgarian Marija Petkowa, who had set the world record in July of the Olympic year . The group of candidates with claims to the other top placings included the two GDR throwers Margitta Pufe, Vice European Champion from 1978 and also already bronze medalist in the shot put , and Gisela Beyer, Tatjana Lessowaja from the USSR and the EM sixth Svetla Boschkowa from Bulgaria. The 1972 Olympic champion and 1976 Olympic champion Faina Melnik, USSR, was there again. But she remained a shadow of herself and dropped out early in qualifying in sixteenth.

Jahl took the lead with a throw on 69.76 m in the second round. With that she improved her own Olympic record from 1976 by 76 cm. Petkowa was in second place with her good first throw on 67.68 m. Beyer was third with 67.08 m. In the third round, Jahl improved her lead again to 69.96 m. The order of the medal positions did not change until round five. With her fifth attempt on 67.40 m, Lessowaja managed the jump to the bronze place, Beyer was now fourth. In the last round two athletes improved their widths: Margitta Pufe threw 66.12 m - that was fifth in the end - and the Romanian Florența Tacu came in at 64.38 m and thus reached sixth place. Four of Evelin Jahl's attempts would have been enough for the gold medal. In the end, she had a lead of over two meters on silver medalist Marija Petkowa. In first and second place there was the same ranking as in 1976. Tatjana Lessowaja won bronze in front of Gisela Beyer.

space	Surname	nation	1st attempt	Second attempt	3. Attempt	4th attempt	5th attempt	6th attempt	Bottom line	annotation
1	Evelin Jahl	GDR	66.14 m	69.76 m OR	69.96 m OR	68.44 m	68.52 m	66.66 m	69.96 m	OR
2	Maria Petkova	Bulgaria	67.68 m	65.36 m	67.66 m	65.56 m	67.68 m	67.90 m	67.90 m
3	Tatiana Lessovaya	Soviet Union	64.12 m	x	65.72 m	64.84 m	67.40 m	66.20 m	67.40 m
4th	Gisela Beyer	GDR	67.08 m	60.54 m	x	x	66.48 m	65.56 m	67.08 m
5	Margitta Pufe	GDR	51.72 m	64.84 m	61.24 m	58.70 m	x	66.12 m	66.12 m
6th	Florența Tacu	Romania	x	64.06 m	x	63.92 m	64.16 m	64.38 m	64.38 m
7th	Galina Murašova	Soviet Union	61.36 m	61.46 m	63.84 m	x	63.02 m	x	63.84 m
8th	Svetla Boschkowa	Bulgaria	56.82 m	63.14 m	61.70 m	x	59.54 m	61.26 m	63.14 m
9	Meg Ritchie	Great Britain	x	60.72 m	61.16 m	not in the final of the eight best throwers			61.16 m
10	Carmen Romero	Cuba	60.86 m	59.44 m	60.06 m				60.86 m
11	Zdeňka Bartoňová	Czechoslovakia	56.96 m	57.74 m	57.78 m				57.78 m
12	Ágnes Herczegh	Hungary	x	55.06 m	x				55.06 m

Web links

• SportsReference Discus Throw , accessed January 4, 2018
• Moscow 1980 Official Report, Volume III, Results , p. 91, English / French (PDF, 28 MB), accessed on January 4, 2018

Video

• Evelin Jahl Adds Moscow Gold to Montreal Discus Triumph - Moscow 1980 Olympics , published April 20, 2013 on youtube.com, accessed on January 4, 2018

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Berlin 2009 Page 648 (Engl.) ( Memento of 29 June 2011 at the Internet Archive ), accessed on 4 January 2018
2. ↑ Moscow 1980 Official Report, Volume III, Results , p. 17, English / French (PDF, 28 MB), accessed on January 4, 2018
3. ↑ ^{a b} Moscow 1980 Official Report, Volume III, Results , p. 91, English / French (PDF, 28 MB), accessed on January 4, 2018
4. ↑ SportsReference , accessed January 4, 2018