1988 Summer Olympics / Athletics - Hammer Throw (Men)

sport	athletics
discipline	Hammer throw
gender	Men
Attendees	30 athletes from 16 countries
Competition location	Seoul Olympic Stadium
Competition phase	September 25, 1988 (qualifying) September 26, 1988 (final)
Medalist Sergei Litvinov ( URS )   Jurij Sedych ( URS )   Jüri Tamm ( URS )

The men's hammer throw at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul was played in two rounds on September 25 and 26, 1988 in the Seoul Olympic Stadium. Thirty athletes took part.

The medals all went to athletes from the Soviet Union. Olympic champion was Sergei Litwinow ahead of Jurij Sedych and Jüri Tamm .

Christoph Sahner and Heinz Weis started for the Federal Republic of Germany. Sahner failed in the qualification. Weis reached the final and finished fifth. Ralf Haber and Gunther Rodehau took part
for the GDR . Both reached the final, Haber came fourth, Rodehau twelfth. The Austrian Johann Lindner also qualified for the final. He came in tenth there. Athletes from Switzerland and Liechtenstein did not take part.

Current title holders

Olympic champion 1984	Juha Tiainen ( Finland )	78.08 m	Los Angeles 1984
World Champion 1987	Sergei Litvinov ( Soviet Union )	83.06 m	Rome 1987
European champion 1986	Jurij Sedych ( Soviet Union )	86.74 m	Stuttgart 1986
Pan American champion 1987	Jud Logan ( USA )	77.24 m	Indianapolis 1987
Central America and Caribbean Champion 1987	Vicente Sánchez ( Cuba )	69.86 m	Caracas 1987
South America Champion 1987	Andrés Charadía ( Argentina )	66.72 m	São Paulo 1987
Asian champion 1987	Xie Yingqi ( People's Republic of China )	66.36 m	Singapore 1987
African Champion 1988	Hakim Toumi ( Algeria )	69.06 m	Annaba 1988

Existing records

World record	86.74 m	Jurij Sedych ( Soviet Union )	Stuttgart , Federal Republic of Germany (now Germany )	August 30, 1986
Olympic record	81.80 min		Final of Moscow , Soviet Union (today Russia )	July 31, 1980

qualification

GDR thrower Gunther Rodehau reached the final and finished twelfth

Date: September 25, 1988

For the qualification, the athletes were drawn into two groups. The qualification distance for direct entry into the final was 77.00 m. Since only eight throwers exceeded this distance (highlighted in light blue), the final field was filled with the next best throwers from both groups to twelve starters (highlighted in light green). Finally, a width of 76.24 m was sufficient for participation in the finals.

Group A

space	Surname	nation	1st attempt	Second attempt	3. Attempt	Expanse	annotation
1	Jüri Tamm	Soviet Union	79.68 m	-	-	79.68 m
2	Yuri Sedych	Soviet Union	78.48 m	-	-	78.48 m
3	Ralf Haber	GDR	75.64 m	78.16 m	-	78.16 m
4th	Gunther Rodehau	GDR	x	78.12 m	-	78.12 m
5	Harri Huhtala	Finland	75.98 m	77.34 m	-	77.34 m
6th	Tibor Gécsek	Hungary	x	77.12 m	-	77.12 m
7th	Imre Szitás	Hungary	74.98 m	76.24 m	73.82 m	76.24 m
8th	Juha Tiainen	Finland	72.44 m	73.74 m	x	73.74 m
9	Viktor Apostolov	Bulgaria	x	x	71.10 m	71.10 m
10	Dave Smith	Great Britain	x	x	69.12 m	69.12 m
11	Hakim Toumi	Algeria	65.78 m	65.72 m	x	65.78 m
12	Matthew Mileham	Great Britain	59.94 m	62.42 m	x	62.42 m
13	Lee Joo-hyong	South Korea	x	x	55.98 m	55.98 m
ogV	Kjell Bystedt	Sweden	x	x	x		without space

Group B

space	Surname	nation	1st attempt	Second attempt	3. Attempt	Expanse	annotation
1	Sergei Litvinov	Soviet Union	81.24 m	-	-	81.24 m
2	Heinz Weis	BR Germany	76.40 m	76.70 m	77.24 m	77.24 m
3	Ivan Tanev	Bulgaria	76.84 m	x	x	76.84 m
4th	Johann Lindner	Austria	76.60 m	74.54 m	x	76.60 m
5	Tore Gustafsson	Sweden	72.90 m	73.14 m	76.44 m	76.44 m
6th	Christoph Sahner	BR Germany	75.84 m	72.42 m	72.46 m	75.84 m
7th	Plamen Minew	Bulgaria	74.46 m	70.22 m	x	74.46 m
8th	József Vida	Hungary	70.60 m	74.30 m	72.50 m	74.30 m
9	Lance deal	United States	x	71.72 m	73.66 m	73.66 m
10	Kenneth Flax	United States	x	72.70 m	72.24 m	72.70 m
11	Jud Logan	United States	69.46 m	72.46 m	72.64 m	72.64 m
12	Lucio Serrani	Italy	70.50 m	x	70.00 m	70.50 m
13	Michael Jones	Great Britain	70.38 m	x	68.94 m	70.38 m
14th	Conor McCullough	Ireland	x	x	68.66 m	68.66 m
15th	Andrés Charadía	Argentina	66.86 m	66.02 m	68.26 m	68.26 m
16	Waleed Al-Bekheet	Kuwait	62.78 m	60.14 m	63.86 m	63.86 m

final

GDR thrower Ralf Haber was fourth

Date: September 26, 1988

Twelve athletes had qualified for the final, eight of them over the required qualification distance. All three participants from the Soviet Union were there. There were also two throwers from the GDR and two from Hungary. The final field was completed by one starter each from the Federal Republic of Germany, Bulgaria, Finland, Austria and Sweden.

The top favorites were the Soviet throwers Sergei Litwinow and Jurij Sedych, who since 1976 with the exception of u. a. Los Angeles games boycotted by the USSR in 1984 had won all major tournaments. World record holder Sedych was the winner of the Olympic Games in 1976 and 1980 , and also reigning European champion . Litvinov had won the world championships in 1983 and 1987 . Her compatriot, Vice World Champion Jüri Tamm, was also rated highly, while the 1984 Olympic champion , the Finn Juha Tiainen, had already failed in the qualification.

In the first attempt Litvinow achieved a new Olympic record with 84.76 m . Sedych and Tamm followed in the next places. Sergei Litvinow not only succeeded in surpassing the previous Olympic record in all six attempts, but was also better than the top scores of all his competitors in each of his attempts. His weakest throw in the last round was 83.80 m, his strongest in the fifth round at 84.80 m, with which he increased his Olympic record from round one by four centimeters. As a silver medalist, Jurij Sedych also exceeded the Olympic record that had been in place up to these games with four attempts. Each of the three Soviet athletes reached a distance of more than eighty meters with each valid attempt. Of the other participants, only the GDR thrower Ralf Haber succeeded in doing this once, with his last attempt, who thus finished in the Olympics behind Jüri Tamm. The fifth and sixth place went to Heinz Weis, FR Germany, and the Hungarian Tibor Gécsek.

It was the third triple success for Soviet hammer throwers at the Olympics.

space	Surname	nation	1st attempt	Second attempt	3. Attempt	4th attempt	5th attempt	6th attempt	Bottom line	annotation
1	Sergei Litvinov	Soviet Union	84.76 m OR	83.82 m	83.86 m	83.98 m	84.80 m OR	83.80 m	84.80 m	OR
2	Yuri Sedych	Soviet Union	80.96 m	83.62 m	83.44 m	83.44 m	x	83.76 m	83.76 m
3	Jüri Tamm	Soviet Union	80.94 m	81.16 m	x	x	x	x	81.16 m
4th	Ralf Haber	GDR	78.92 m	78.72 m	79.18 m	x	78.88 m	80.44 m	80.44 m
5	Heinz Weis	BR Germany	78.50 m	76.80 m	x	77.70 m	78.98 m	79.16 m	79.16 m
6th	Tibor Gécsek	Hungary	78.18 m	76.52 m	74.36 m	77.82 m	x	78.36 m	78.36 m
7th	Imre Szitás	Hungary	76.00 m	76.40 m	76.20 m	75.66 m	76.10 m	77.04 m	77.04 m
8th	Ivan Tanev	Bulgaria	75.56 m	75.76 m	x	75.28 m	75.54 m	76.08 m	76.08 m
9	Harri Huhtala	Finland	75.26 m	75.38 m	75.08 m	not in the final of the eight best throwers			75.38 m
10	Johann Lindner	Austria	75.36 m	75.14 m	75.28 m				75.36 m
11	Tore Gustafsson	Sweden	74.24 m	73.32 m	x				74.24 m
12	Gunther Rodehau	GDR	x	x	72.36 m				72.36 m

Web links

• SportsReference Hammerwurf , accessed January 28, 2018
• Official report on the Olympic Games in Seoul Volume two, part two , results in athletics: p. 245, English / French (PDF, 25.64 MB), accessed on January 28, 2018

Video

• 1988 seoul , published July 8, 2012 on youtube.com, accessed January 28, 2018

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Beijing 2015, page 680 , accessed on January 28, 2018
2. ↑ ^{a b} Official report on the Olympic Games in Seoul, volume two, part two , athletics results: p. 245, English / French (PDF, 25.64 MB), accessed on January 28, 2018