1996 Summer Olympics / Athletics - Discus Throw (Men)

sport	athletics
discipline	Discus throw
gender	Men
Attendees	40 athletes from 30 countries
Competition location	Centennial Olympic Stadium
Competition phase	July 29, 1996 (qualifying) July 31, 1996 (final)
Medalist Lars Riedel ( GER )   Uladsimir Dubrouschtschyk ( BLR )   Wassil Kapzjuch ( BLR )

The men's discus throw at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta was played on July 29 and 31, 1996 at the Centennial Olympic Stadium . Forty athletes took part.

Olympic champion was the German Lars Riedel . He won before the two Belarusians Uladsimir Dubrouschtschyk and Wassil Kapzjuch .

In addition to the winner Riedel, Michael Möllenbeck and Jürgen Schult started for Germany . Möllenbeck was eliminated in the qualification. Schult reached the final and finished sixth.
Athletes from Switzerland, Austria and Liechtenstein did not take part.

Current title holders

Olympic champion 1992	Romas Ubartas ( Lithuania )	65.12 m	Barcelona 1992
World Champion 1995	Lars Riedel ( Germany )	68.76 m	Gothenburg 1995
European Champion 1994	Uladsimir Dubrouschtschyk ( Belarus )	64.78 m	Helsinki 1994
Pan American champion 1995	Roberto Moya ( Cuba )	63.58 m	Mar del Plata 1995
Central America and Caribbean champions 1995	Yojer Medina ( Venezuela )	18.46 m	Guatemala City 1995
South American Champion 1995	Gert Weil ( Chile )	19.02 m	Manaus 1995
Asian champion 1995	Bilal Saad Mubarak ( Qatar )	18.87 m	Jakarta 1995
African champion 1996	Serge Doh ( Ivory Coast )	51.92 m	Yaoundé 1996
Oceania Champion 1994	Gordon Barff ( Tahiti )	48.54 m	Auckland 1994

Existing records

The Icelander Vésteinn Hafsteinsson was eliminated in fourteenth of his qualifying group

Olympic champion Lars Riedel from Germany

The Lithuanian Virgilijus Alekna was fifth in the Olympics

World record holder Jürgen Schult from Germany finished sixth in the final

World record	74.08 m	Jürgen Schult ( GDR )	Neubrandenburg , Germany	August 25, 1991
Olympic record	68.82 m		Final from Seoul , South Korea	October 1, 1988

Remarks:

• All times are local Atlanta time ( UTC − 5 ).
• All widths are given in meters (m).

qualification

July 29, 1996, from 9:30 a.m.

The qualification was carried out in two groups. The qualification distance for direct entry into the final was 62.50 m. Since only eight athletes achieved this performance (highlighted in light blue), the final field was filled with the next best throwers from both groups to twelve participants (highlighted in light green). So finally 62.22 m were needed to take part in the finals.

Group A

space	Surname	nation	1st attempt	Second attempt	3. Attempt	Expanse
1	Lars Riedel	Germany	64.66	-	-	64.66
2	Uladsimir Dubrouschtschyk	Belarus	63.22	-	-	63.22
3	Attila Horváth	Hungary	58.94	62.90	-	62.90
4th	Vaclavas Kidykas	Lithuania	59.64	62.74	-	62.74
5	Jürgen Schult	Germany	62.58	-	-	62.58
6th	Adam Setliff	United States	62.36	58.42	60.06	62.36
7th	Nick Sweeney	Ireland	58.82	62.04	61.06	62.04
8th	Robert Weir	Great Britain	61.64	60.54	x	61.64
9	Adewale Olukoju	Nigeria	x	60.98	59.32	60.98
10	Diego Fortuna	Italy	57.78	59.30	60.08	60.08
11	Svein Inge Valvik	Norway	59.34	58.34	59.60	59.60
12	Roberto Moya	Cuba	59.22	57.60	x	59.22
13	Daschdendewiin Machashiri	Mongolia	59.16	54.18	x	59.16
14th	Igor Primc	Slovenia	59.12	56.40	57.62	59.12
15th	Costel Grasu	Romania	58.30	x	58.56	58.56
16	Andrij Kochanowskyj	Ukraine	57.90	x	x	57.90
17th	Marcelo Pugliese	Argentina	56.72	x	x	56.72
18th	Alexander Borichevsky	Russia	x	56.46	55.18	56.46
19th	Roman Poltoratsky	Uzbekistan	x	x	51.96	51.96
20th	Jaroslav Žitňanský	Slovakia	x	50.94	51.50	51.50

Group B

space	Surname	nation	1st attempt	Second attempt	3. Attempt	Expanse
1	Virgilijus Alekna	Lithuania	64.50	-	-	64.50
2	Anthony Washington	United States	63.66	-	-	63.66
3	Vitaly Sidorov	Ukraine	x	57.60	63.42	63.42
4th	Sergei Lyakhov	Russia	59.62	62.42	-	62.42
5	Alexis Elizalde	Cuba	60.98	62.22	61.44	62.22
6th	Wassil Kapzjuch	Belarus	57.28	61.14	62.22	62.22
7th	John Godina	United States	61.82	59.88	57.46	61.82
8th	Ramón Jiménez Gaona	Paraguay	58.18	61.36	x	61.36
9	Li Shaojie	People's Republic of China	58.54	60.06	60.20	60.20
10	Marek Bílek	Czech Republic	59.86	58.42	58.62	59.86
11	Aleksander Tammert	Estonia	58.84	x	59.04	59.04
12	Dragan Mustapic	Croatia	x	57.94	56.62	57.94
13	Shakti Singh	India	53.72	56.58	54.30	56.58
14th	Vésteinn Hafsteinsson	Iceland	53.94	52.14	56.30	56.30
15th	Jason Tunks	Canada	x	x	55.58	55.58
16	Mickaël Conjungo	Central African Republic	x	x	55.34	55.34
17th	Michael Möllenbeck	Germany	x	55.18	55.06	55.18
18th	Glen Smith	Great Britain	54.88	x	x	54.88
19th	Chris Sua'mene	Western Samoa	49.22	51.28	50.24	51.28
ogV	David Martínez	Spain	x	x	x	without

final

July 31, 1996, 7:30 p.m.

Twelve athletes had qualified for the final, eight over the required qualification distance and four more over their placements. Two US-Americans, two Germans, Lithuanians and Belarusians each met one participant from Cuba, Russia, Ukraine and Hungary.

The three-time world champion Lars Riedel from Germany was the favorite for the Olympic victory. Further medal contenders were the Belarusian European champion and runner-up world champion Uladsimir Dubrouschtschyk, his compatriot Wassil Kapzjuch as World Cup third, and world record holder Jürgen Schult, World Cup fifth and European third.

The lead after the first round was held by the American Anthony Washington. He was 65.42 m ahead of Dubrouschtschyk, who had come to 64.86 m. In the second attempt Dubrouschtschyk passed Washington with 66.60 m, the Lithuanian Virgilijus Alekna reached third place with 65.30 m. Riedel had had two failed attempts by then, so he was under a lot of pressure to at least place himself in the top eight and thus have the opportunity for three more attempts. Riedel reached 65.40 m and was fourth behind Washington. Kapzjuch had achieved 65.80 m and was now in second place behind his teammate Dubrouschtschyk.

There were no changes in the ranking in the fourth round. In lap five, Riedel finally proved his high level and threw the discus to the new Olympic record distance of 69.40 m. The last test series did not bring any change either. Lars Riedel won ahead of Uladsimir Dubrouschtschyk and Wassil Kapzjuch. Anthony Washington was fourth ahead of Virgilijus Alekna and Jürgen Schult.

space	Surname	nation	1st attempt	Second attempt	3. Attempt	4th attempt	5th attempt	6th attempt	Bottom line	Remarks
1	Lars Riedel	Germany	x	x	65.40	63.10	69.40 OR	69.24	69.40	OR
2	Uladsimir Dubrouschtschyk	Belarus	64.86	66.60	64.38	59.68	x	x	66.60
3	Wassil Kapzjuch	Belarus	63.24	64.00	65.80	x	63.82	65.08	65.80
4th	Anthony Washington	United States	65.42	x	x	61.34	x	62.50	65.42
5	Virgilijus Alekna	Lithuania	62.28	65.30	64.50	x	64.54	63.74	65.30
6th	Jürgen Schult	Germany	62.82	64.42	62.62	64.62	64.38	63.78	64.62
7th	Vitaly Sidorov	Ukraine	63.44	x	x	62.76	63.78	62.82	63.78
8th	Vaclavas Kidykas	Lithuania	61.48	57.52	62.78	x	61.68	61.88	62.78
9	Alexis Elizalde	Cuba	60.52	60.36	62.70	not in the final of the eight best throwers			62.70
10	Attila Horváth	Hungary	60.66	62.28	59.72				62.28
11	Sergei Lyakhov	Russia	60.62	59.90	x				60.62
12	Adam Setliff	United States	x	56.30	x				56.30

literature

• Gerd Rubenbauer (ed.), Olympic Summer Games Atlanta 1996 with reports by Britta Kruse, Johannes Ebert, Andreas Schmidt and Ernst Christian Schütt, comments: Gerd Rubenbauer and Hans Schwarz, Chronik Verlag im Bertelsmann Verlag, Gütersloh / Munich 1996, p. 38f

Web links

• SportsReference Discus Throw , accessed March 5, 2018
• Official Report, Part III on the Olympic Games in Atlanta , p. 94, English / French (PDF, 13,520 MB), accessed on March 5, 2018

Video

• 1996 Olympic Games Men's Discus Throw , published April 8, 2012 on youtube.com, accessed March 5, 2018

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Beijing 2015, page 678 , accessed on March 5, 2018
2. ↑ ^{a b} Official Report, Part III on the Olympic Games in Atlanta ( Memento of the original from October 7, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , P. 94, English / French (PDF, 13,520 MB), accessed on March 5, 2018.