Uwe Mockery

Uwe Hohn 1984

Uwe Hohn (born July 16, 1962 in Neuruppin ) is a former German athlete who went down in sports history with the first documented javelin throw of over 100 meters.

Life

Uwe Hohn grew up in Rheinsberg and started throwing the javelin there. Because of his convincing performance he was delegated to the children's and youth sports school in Brandenburg and thus became a member of the ASK Vorwärts Potsdam . After several successes in the youth field, Hohn recorded his first international success in 1981 when he won the title at the Junior European Championships in Utrecht and at the same time set a new continental record. A year later, the Potsdam-based man was crowned European champion among senior citizens.

At the GDR championships in 1984

After a one-year break from injury, Hohn made a convincing return to competition in 1984, when on May 25, 1984, with a new European record of 99.52 m in his native Potsdam, he missed the world record set by American Tom Petranoff by just 20 centimeters. Almost two months later, the sports soldier also surpassed this mark and set a fabulous world record with 104.80 m. A possible gold medal at the 1984 Olympic Games was denied to the exceptional athlete due to the boycott of the GDR . In return, the GDR athlete of the year held himself harmless in the friendship competitions held as a substitute and with 94.44 m exceeded the victory distance of the 1984 Olympic champion, Arto Härkönen (Finland) by over seven meters.

In 1985, Hohn won the European Cup and the World Cup . He also tried his hand at "throwing matches" on the TV show Outsider Front Runner. His best attempt in front of the cameras was measured at 30.68 m, the stated "house record" was 34 meters.

After several operations due to a damaged intervertebral disc, Hohn finally had to end his active career in 1987. With a height of 1.98 m, he had a competition weight of 116 kg. In the documents on state doping in the GDR that became public after the fall of the Wall , the name of von Mohn was found among the doped athletes.

After his sports career, he first worked as an assistant coach . As his symptoms continued to worsen, Hohn was temporarily receiving a disability pension. In 1999 he became an honorary coach at SC Potsdam , the successor to ASK Vorwärts Potsdam . He later worked in Qatar, Australia and China. Uwe Hohn married in 1983, he has a daughter and a son.

The world record and its consequences

The 104.80 m, which Uwe Hohn achieved on July 20, 1984 at the Olympic Day in Berlin's Jahn Stadium , was the decisive factor in changing the rules. For safety reasons, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) introduced a new competition javelin with a different center of gravity effective April 1, 1986, which causes a steeper trajectory and thus a faster descent of the aircraft. Due to the new record list, the width of Hohn became an "eternal world record". The current world record set by the Czech Jan Železný since May 1996 is 98.48 m.

Sporting successes

• European champion 1982 with 91.34 m
• Winner of the World Cup 1985 in Canberra with 96.96 m (annual world best)
• Winner of the European Cup 1985 in Moscow with 92.88 m
• Junior European Champion 1981 with 86.56 m (Junior European record)
• GDR champion 1984, 1985
• GDR junior champion 1980
• GDR Spartakiade winner 1977, 1979

Awards (selection)

• 1984 - Patriotic Order of Merit in Gold
• 1986 - Silver Star of Friendship of Nations

literature

• Klaus Amrhein: Biographical manual on the history of German athletics 1898–2005 . 2 volumes. Darmstadt 2005 published on German Athletics Promotion and Project Society.
• Experienced - told. From Uwe Hohn to Katarina Witt , 1986, ISBN 3-328-00115-8 .
• Volker Kluge : Lexicon - Sportsmen in the GDR , New Life Publishing House 2009, ISBN 978-3-355-01759-6 .
• Volker Kluge:  Mockery, Uwe . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 1. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .

Web links

Commons : Uwe Hohn  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• The 104.80 meter litter on Youtube

Individual evidence

1. ↑ 30 x curious Brandenburg at RBB-Online
2. ↑ Erik Eggers: Uwe Hohn has held the spear throwing record for 25 years , Der Tagesspiegel July 20, 2009
3. ^ Brigitte Berendonk : Doping. From research to fraud . Reinbek 1992, ISBN 3-499-18677-2 , p. 182
4. ↑ Peter Stein: The century javelin thrower Uwe Hohn celebrates his 50th birthday today  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.   , Märkische Allgemeine July 16, 2012
5. ↑ Erik Eggers: Uwe Hohn has held the spear throwing record for 25 years , Der Tagesspiegel July 20, 2009