1980 Summer Olympics / Athletics - High Jump (Men)

sport	athletics
discipline	high jump
gender	Men
Attendees	30 athletes from 11 countries
Competition location	Luzhniki Olympic Stadium
Competition phase	July 31, 1980 (qualifying) August 1, 1980 (final)
Medalist Gerd Wessig ( GDR )   Jacek Wszoła ( POL )   Jörg Freimuth ( GDR )

The men's high jump at the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow was held on July 31 and August 1, 1980 in the Luzhniki Olympic Stadium. Thirty athletes took part.

Olympic champion was Gerd Wessig from the GDR, who set a new world record. He won ahead of Poland's Jacek Wszoła and Jörg Freimuth from the GDR.

Henry Lauterbach took part as the third starter for the GDR . He also reached the final and was fourth.
The Swiss Roland Dalhäuser also reached the finals and finished fifth.
Jumpers from 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	2.35 m	Jacek Wszoła ( Poland )	Eberstadt , Federal Republic of Germany	May 25, 1980
		Dietmar Mögenburg ( Federal Republic of Germany )	Rehlingen , Federal Republic of Germany	May 26, 1980
Olympic record	2.25 m	Jacek Wszoła ( Poland )	Final of Montreal , Canada	July 31, 1976

Conducting the competition

The jumpers competed in two groups for a qualifying round on July 31st. The qualification height for reaching the final on August 1st was 2.21 m. Since more than twelve athletes reached this height, the final field was not filled any further.

Time schedule

July 31, 10:00 a.m .: Qualification
August 1, 4:30 p.m .: Final

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

The qualified athletes are highlighted in light blue.

qualification

Group A

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

space	Surname	nation	2.05 m	2.10 m	2.15 m	2.18 m	2.21 m	height	annotation
1	Jörg Freimuth	GDR	O	O	O	O	O	2.21 m
	Henry Lauterbach	GDR
	Gerd Wessig	GDR
4th	Roland Dalhauser	Switzerland	-	O	O	xo	O	2.21 m
5	Oleksiy Demjanjuk	Soviet Union	xo	xo	O	O	O	2.21 m
6th	Gennady Belkov	Soviet Union	O	O	O	xxo	O	2.21 m
	Marco Tamberi	Italy
8th	Jacek Wszoła	Poland	-	O	O	O	x o	2.21 m
9	Adrian Proteasa	Romania	-	xxo	O	xo	x o	2.21 m
10	Aljaksandr Hryhorjeu	Soviet Union	-	O	O	O	xx o	2.21 m
11	Janusz Trzepizur	Poland	-	xo	xo	O	xx o	2.21 m
12	Francis Agbo	France	-	O	O	O	xxx	2.18 m
13	Oscar raise	Italy	O	O	xo	O	xxx	2.18 m
14th	Zoltán Társi	Hungary	O	xo	xo	O	xxx	2.18 m
15th	Paolo Borghi	Italy	O	O	O	x o	xxx	2.18 m

Group B

space	Surname	nation	2.05 m	2.10 m	2.15 m	2.18 m	2.21 m	height	annotation
1	Mark Naylor	Great Britain	-	O	O	O	O	2.21 m
2	Vaso Komnenić	Yugoslavia	O	O	O	xxo	O	2.21 m
3	Sorin Matei	Romania	-	O	xo	xxo	O	2.21 m
4th	Guy Moreau	Belgium	O	O	O	xo	xx o	2.21 m
5	Roberto Cabrejas	Spain	O	O	xo	xxo	xx o	2.21 m
6th	Abdel Hamid Sahil	Algeria	xo	O	O	xx o	xxx	2.18 m
7th	Martí Perarnau	Spain	O	xo	O	xxx		2.15 m
8th	István Gibicsár	Hungary	xo	O	xx o	xxx		2.15 m
9	Atanas Mladenow	Bulgaria	O	O	xxx			2.10 m
	Desmond Morris	Jamaica
11	Francisco Centelles	Cuba	-	x o	xxx			2.10 m
12	Moussa Sagna case	Senegal	O	x o	xxx			2.10 m
13	Othmane Belfaa	Algeria	O	xxx				2.05 m
14th	Ahmad Balkis	Syria	x o	xxx				2.05 m
	Cláudio Freire	Brazil

final

Date: August 1, 1980, 4:30 p.m.

The clear favorite was the Polish Olympic champion from 1976 , Jacek Wszoła. In July of the Olympic year he had improved the world record by one centimeter to 2.35 m. His biggest competitors did not appear in Moscow. Dietmar Mögenburg from the Federal Republic of Germany, who set Wszola's world record a day later, did not take part because of the Olympic boycott, while Vladimir Yashchenko , the Soviet European champion from 1978 and previous world record holder, had a knee operation and was not fit.

16 jumpers had qualified for the final. At 2.29 m, only four athletes were left in the competition: Wszoła and the three GDR jumpers Gerd Wessig, Henry Lauterbach and Jörg Freimuth. Lauterbach failed at the next height of 2.31 m and stayed fourth. Wessig crossed the bar on the first attempt and thus took the lead, because Wszoła and Freimuth had needed two attempts. Wszoła and Freimuth failed at 2.33 m, Wessig took the height in the second attempt and was thus completely surprisingly Olympic champion. Jacek Wszoła won silver. Like Jörg Freimuth, he had accumulated three unsuccessful attempts beforehand, but he needed one less attempt overall. Gerd Wessig was able to cross the new world record height of 2.36 m in the second attempt, at 2.38 m he failed three times.

Gerd Wessig was the first GDR Olympic champion in the high jump . At the same time, he was also the first high jumper to break a world record in an Olympic competition.

Olympic champion Gerd Wessig, GDR

space	Surname	nation	2.10 m	2.15 m	2.18 m	2.21 m	2.24 m	2.27 m	2.29 m	2.31 m	2.33 m	2.36 m	2.38 m	Bottom line	annotation
1	Gerd Wessig	GDR	-	O	-	O	O	O	xo	O	xo	x o	xxx	2.36 m	WR
2	Jacek Wszoła	Poland	-	O	-	xo	xo	O	O	x o	xxx			2.31 m
3	Jörg Freimuth	GDR	O	-	O	O	O	xxo	O	x o	xxx			2.31 m
4th	Henry Lauterbach	GDR	-	O	-	xxo	xo	O	O	xxx				2.29 m
5	Roland Dalhauser	Switzerland	-	O	-	O	x o	xxx						2.24 m
6th	Vaso Komnenić	Yugoslavia	O	O	-	O	xx o	xxx						2.24 m
7th	Adrian Proteasa	Romania	-	O	O	O	xxx							2.21 m
8th	Aljaksandr Hryhorjeu	Soviet Union	O	O	O	O	xxx							2.21 m
9	Mark Naylor	Great Britain	-	O	xo	O	xxx							2.21 m
10	Gennady Belkov	Soviet Union	O	O	xo	O	xxx							2.21 m
11	Oleksiy Demjanjuk	Soviet Union	O	O	xo	xx o	-	xxx						2.21 m
12	Janusz Trzepizur	Poland	-	O	O	xxx								2.18 m
13	Sorin Matei	Romania	O	O	O	xxx								2.18 m
14th	Guy Moreau	Belgium	O	O	x o	xxx								2.18 m
15th	Marco Tamberi	Italy	O	O	-	xxx								2.15 m
16	Roberto Cabrejas	Spain	O	xxx										2.10 m

Video

• 1980 Moscow Olympics, Mens High Jump , published March 7, 2009 on youtube.com, accessed December 30, 2017

Web links

• SportsReference high jump , accessed December 30, 2017
• Moscow 1980 Official Report, Volume III, Results , p. 52f, English / French (PDF, 28 MB), accessed on December 30, 2017

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Berlin 2009 Page 555 (Engl.) ( Memento of 29 June 2011 at the Internet Archive ), accessed on 30 December 2017
2. ↑ Moscow 1980 Official Report, Volume III, Results , p. 17, English / French (PDF, 28 MB), accessed on December 30, 2017
3. ↑ ^{a b} Moscow 1980 Official Report, Volume III, Results , p. 53, English / French (PDF, 28 MB), accessed on December 30, 2017
4. ↑ SportsReference , accessed December 30, 2017