1984 Summer Olympics / Athletics - Javelin Throw (Men)

sport	athletics
discipline	Javelin throw
gender	Men
Attendees	28 athletes from 19 countries
Competition location	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
Competition phase	August 4, 1984 (qualifying) August 5, 1984 (final)
Medalist Arto Härkönen ( FIN )   David Ottley ( GBR )   Kenth Eldebrink ( SWE )

The men's javelin throw at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles was held on August 4th and 5th, 1984 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum . 28 athletes took part.

The Olympic champion was Arto Härkönen from Finland . He won ahead of the British David Ottley and the Swede Kenth Eldebrink .

Wolfram Gambke and Klaus Tafelmeier were the representatives of the Federal Republic of Germany. Tafelmeier was eliminated in the qualification, Gambke reached the final and was fourth.
Throwers from Switzerland, Austria and Liechtenstein did not take part. Athletes from the GDR were also not there because of the Olympic boycott.

Current title holders

Olympic champion 1980	Dainis Kūla ( Soviet Union )	91.20 m	Moscow 1980
World Champion 1983	Detlef Michel ( GDR )	89.48 m	Helsinki 1983
European Champion 1982	Uwe Hohn ( GDR )	91.34 m	Athens 1982
Pan American Champion 1983	Laslo Babits ( Canada )	81.40 m	Caracas 1983
Central America and Caribbean Champion 1983	Reinaldo Patterson ( Cuba )	79.76 m	Havana 1983
South America Champion 1983	José de Souza ( Brazil )	74.54 m	Santa Fe 1983
Asian champion 1983	Masami Yoshida ( Japan )	79.50 m	Kuwait City 1983
African champions 1982	Zakayo Malekwa ( Tanzania )	76.18 m	Cairo 1982

Existing records

World record	104.80 m	Uwe Hohn ( GDR )	Berlin , GDR (now Germany )	July 20, 1984
Olympic record	94.58 min	Miklós Németh ( Hungary )	Final of Montreal , Canada	July 26, 1976

qualification

Date: August 4, 1984

For the qualification, the athletes were drawn into two groups. The qualification distance for direct entry into the final was 83.00 m. Since only four throwers exceeded this distance, the final field was filled with the next best participants from both groups, the so-called lucky losers , to twelve athletes. So 79.34 m was enough for the final. The directly qualified athletes are highlighted in light blue, the lucky losers in light green.

Group A

space	Surname	nation	1st attempt	Second attempt	3. Attempt	Expanse	annotation
1	Roald Bradstock	Great Britain	79.52 m	81.08 m	83.06 m	83.06 m
2	Wolfram Gambke	BR Germany	75.10 m	82.98 m	x	82.98 m
3	Per Erling Olsen	Norway	82.46 m	x	x	82.46 m
4th	Laslo Babits	Canada	x	76.68 m	82.18 m	82.18 m
5	Masami Yoshida	Japan	78.14 m	81.42 m	78.06 m	81.42 m
6th	Einar Vilhjálmsson	Iceland	79.78 m	x	80.94 m	80.94 m
7th	Jean-Paul Lakafia	France	80.52 m	66.26 m	78.02 m	80.52 m
8th	Duncan Atwood	United States	77.08 m	79.34 m	x	79.34 m
9	Raimo Manninen	Finland	79.26 m	x	x	79.26 m
10	Juan de la Garza	Mexico	78.80 m	x	79.16 m	79.16 m
11	Sejad Krdžalić	Yugoslavia	76.52 m	x	x	76.52 m
12	Zakayo Malekwa	Tanzania	71.80 m	x	75.18 m	75.18 m
13	Agostino Ghesini	Italy	72.16 m	63.92 m	72.96 m	72.96 m
14th	Justin Arop	Uganda	69.76 m	66.30 m	x	69.76 m

Group B

space	Surname	nation	1st attempt	Second attempt	3. Attempt	Expanse	annotation
1	Tom Petranoff	United States	85.96 m	-	-	85.96 m
2	David Ottley	Great Britain	85.86 m	-	-	85.86 m
3	Arto Härkönen	Finland	82.82 m	83.06 m	-	83.06 m
4th	Kenth Eldebrink	Sweden	79.36 m	81.06 m	79.42 m	81.06 m
5	Reidar Lorentzen	Norway	x	68.00 m	76.62 m	76.62 m
6th	Tero Saviniemi	Finland	x	76.46 m	x	76.46 m
7th	Steve Roller	United States	75.50 m	75.48 m	x	75.50 m
8th	Kazuhiro Mizoguchi	Japan	74.82 m	72.58 m	69.18 m	74.82 m
9	Muhammad Rashid Khan	Pakistan	72.48 m	70.76 m	74.58 m	74.58 m
10	Klaus Tafelmeier	BR Germany	x	x	73.52 m	73.52 m
11	Chen Hung-Yen	Chinese Taipei	62.46 m	71.48 m	68.54 m	71.48 m
12	Gurtej Singh	India	63.62 m	70.08 m	69.32 m	70.08 m
13	Sigurdur Einarsson	Iceland	69.82 m	68.68 m	67.02 m	69.82 m
ogV	Mike O'Rourke	New Zealand	x	x	x		without space

final

Date: August 5, 1984

Twelve athletes had qualified for the final. Four of them had exceeded the required qualification distance, eight other participants - with the next best distances in both groups - completed the field. Two Americans and two British had reached the final. The other finalists came from Sweden, the Federal Republic of Germany, Norway, Canada, Japan, Iceland, Finland and France. Each participant initially had three attempts. The best eight athletes were then able to complete three more attempts.

The Olympic boycott prevented the top peoples from the Eastern Bloc from taking part. The world record holder Uwe Hohn from the GDR was not there. The world champion Detlef Michel , also from the GDR, and the strong throwers from the Soviet Union Heino Puuste and Dainis Kūla were also missing. Without the top people, there was no clear favorite in Los Angeles .

With 85.74 m, the Briton David Ottley took the lead in the first attempt. Behind him was Wolfram Gambke from the Federal Republic of Germany with 82.00 m, who was able to improve with his second throw to 82.46 m. In the third round, Arto Härkönen from Finland reached 84.34 m, displacing Gambke in third place. On lap four, Härkönen then took the lead with 86.76 m ahead of Ottley and Gambke. The Swede Kenth Eldebrink was able to displace Gambke from position three with his fifth litter on 83.72 m. The last round brought no change in the ranking. Olympic champion was Arto Härkönen, silver went to David Ottley and bronze went to Kenth Eldebrink.

The widths were consistently below the level of the major athletic events of recent years. The competition suffered significantly from the lack of throwers from the boycott states.

David Ottley was the first British medalist in the javelin throw .

space	Surname	nation	1st attempt	Second attempt	3. Attempt	4th attempt	5th attempt	6th attempt	Bottom line	annotation
1	Arto Härkönen	Finland	x	78.74 m	84.34 m	86.76 m	x	x	86.76 m
2	David Ottley	Great Britain	85.74 m	81.52 m	x	x	83.92 m	84.46 m	85.74 m
3	Kenth Eldebrink	Sweden	x	80.82 m	x	x	83.72 m	83.30 m	83.72 m
4th	Wolfram Gambke	BR Germany	82.00 m	82.46 m	x	78.88 m	x	72.08 m	82.46 m
5	Masami Yoshida	Japan	x	81.98 m	x	81.98 m	77.92 m	81.66 m	81.98 m
6th	Einar Vilhjálmsson	Iceland	80.44 m	77.66 m	79.22 m	81.58 m	x	79.26 m	81.58 m
7th	Roald Bradstock	Great Britain	70.20 m	81.22 m	78.22 m	76.68 m	x	78.82 m	81.22 m
8th	Laslo Babits	Canada	x	x	80.68 m	x	x	x	80.68 m
9	Per Erling Olsen	Norway	73.64 m	x	79.98 m	not in the final of the eight best throwers			79.98 m
10	Tom Petranoff	United States	x	x	78.40 m				78.40 m
11	Duncan Atwood	United States	72.54 m	78.10 m	x				78.10 m
12	Jean-Paul Lakafia	France	x	x	70.86 m				70.86 m

literature

• Olympic Games 1984 Los Angeles Sarajevo with contributions by Ulrich Kaiser and Heinz Maegerlein , Eds. Manfred Vorderwülbecke , C. Bertelsmann Verlag, Munich 1984, ISBN 3-570-01851-2 , p. 36f

Web links

• SportsReference Javelin , accessed January 13, 2018
• Los Angeles 1984 Official Report, 3, Results of the Games , p. 289, English / French (PDF, 11 MB), accessed on January 13, 2018

Video

• Miesten keihäs Los Angeles 1984 , published February 5, 2017 on youtube.com, accessed January 13, 2018

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Beijing 2015, page 680 , accessed on January 13, 2018
2. ↑ ^{a b} Los Angeles 1984 Official Report, 3, Results of the Games , p. 289, English / French (PDF, 11 MB), accessed on January 13, 2018