Vilmos Varjú

Vilmos Varjú [ ˈvilmoʃ ˈvɒrjuː ] (born June 10, 1937 in Gyula , † February 17, 1994 in Budapest ) was a Hungarian athlete .

The best European shot putter of the 1960s was already there in 1958 at the European Championships in Stockholm and finished seventh with 16.77 meters. He won his first major title at the 1962 European Championships in Belgrade with 19.02 meters and 64 centimeters ahead of Wiktor Lipsnis from the Soviet Union.

At the Olympic Games in 1964 , Varjú was able to win bronze with 19.39 meters behind the two Americans Dallas Long and Randy Matson .

In 1966 he won the European Indoor Games in Dortmund with 19.05 meters and eighty centimeters ahead of Dieter Hoffmann from the GDR. In the summer of 1966 , the European Championships took place in Budapest. In front of his home crowd, Varjú won again with 19.43 meters, 61 centimeters ahead of Nikolai Karassjow from the Soviet Union.

In Mexico City at the 1968 Olympic Games , Varjú reached 18.86 meters in qualifying and missed the final by an inch. A year later at the European Championships in Athens in 1969 , he kicked 18.78 meters and finished seventh.

At the European Championships in Helsinki in 1971 Varjú scored 19.99 centimeters and was fourth with 5 centimeters behind bronze. He reached his last big final at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich. With 20.10 meters, he took eighth place.

Vilmos Varjú was 1958-1960 and 1963-1972 Hungarian champion in the shot put. He improved the Hungarian record a total of 17 times from 16.63 meters to 20.45 meters, which he reached in 1971. With 18.67 meters in 1960 and 19.62 in 1966, he twice improved the European record.

With a height of 1.89 m, Varju had a competition weight of 140 kg.

literature

• Peter Matthews (Ed.): Athletics 1995. Surbiton 1995, ISBN 1-899807-00-4