The men's

hammer throw The hammer throw is one of the four throwing events in regular track and field competitions, along with the discus throw, shot put and javelin. The "hammer" used in this sport is not like any of the tools also called by that name. It consis ...

event at the

1952 Summer Olympics The 1952 Summer Olympics ( fi, Kesäolympialaiset 1952; sv, Olympiska sommarspelen 1952), officially known as the Games of the XV Olympiad ( fi, XV olympiadin kisat; sv, Den XV olympiadens spel) and commonly known as Helsinki 1952 ( sv, Helsin ...

took place on 24 July at the

Helsinki Olympic Stadium The Helsinki Olympic Stadium ( fi, Helsingin Olympiastadion; sv, Helsingfors Olympiastadion), located in the Töölö district about from the centre of the Finnish capital Helsinki, is the largest stadium in the country, nowadays mainly used f ...

. There were 33 competitors from 18 nations. The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress. The event was won by

József Csermák József Csermák (14 February 1932 – 14 January 2001 in Tapolca) was a Hungarian hammer thrower. He won the gold medal at the 1952 Summer Olympics The 1952 Summer Olympics ( fi, Kesäolympialaiset 1952; sv, Olympiska sommarspelen 19 ...

of Hungary, the nation's second consecutive victory in the event.

Imre Németh Imre Németh (23 September 1917 in Košice, Kassa, Hungary (now Košice, Slovakia) – 18 August 1989 in Budapest) was a Hungary, Hungarian hammer thrower. He won the gold medal at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London, Great Britain. He ...

, who had won four years earlier, took bronze; he was the fourth man to win multiple medals in the event. Silver went to

Karl Storch Karl Storch (21 August 1913 – 16 August 1992) was a German athlete, who mainly competed in the hammer throw. He was born in Fulda. The member of SC Borussia Fulda competed for Germany at the 1952 Summer Olympics, Germany in the 1952 Sum ...

of Germany.

Background

This was the 11th appearance of the event, which has been held at every Summer Olympics except 1896. Six of the 13 finalists from the 1948 Games returned: gold medalist

of Hungary, silver medalist Ivan Gubijan of Yugoslavia, fourth-place finisher Samuel Felton of the United States, fifth-place finisher Lauri Tamminen of Finland, seventh-place finisher Teseo Taddia of Italy, and eleventh-place finisher Duncan Clark of Great Britain. Németh was among the favorites to repeat; other contenders included 1950 European champion

Sverre Strandli Sverre Gunnar Strandli (30 November 1925 – 4 March 1985) was a Norway, Norwegian hammer thrower, who won the gold medal at the European Championships in 1950 European Championships in Athletics, 1950 and the silver medal in 1954 European Champ ...

of Norway and

of Germany. Belgium, Pakistan, Puerto Rico, Romania, and the Soviet Union each made their debut in the event. The United States appeared for the 11th time, the only nation to have competed at each appearance of the event to that point.

Competition format

The competition used the two-round format introduced in 1936, with the qualifying round completely separate from the divided final. In qualifying, each athlete received three attempts; those recording a mark of at least 49.00 metres advanced to the final. If fewer than 12 athletes achieved that distance, the top 12 would advance. The results of the qualifying round were then ignored. Finalists received three throws each, with the top six competitors receiving an additional three attempts. The best distance among those six throws counted.Official Report, p. 323.

Records

Prior to the competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.

set a new Olympic record with a distance of 57.20 metres in the qualifying round. In the final, five men beat the old Olympic record and a sixth man tied it; the three medalists all bettered Csermák's qualifying round mark. Csermák's first throw in the final went 58.45 metres; his third went 60.34 metres for a new world record.

Schedule

All times are

Eastern European Summer Time Eastern European Summer Time (EEST) is one of the names of the UTC+03:00 time zone, which is 3 hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time. It is used as a summer daylight saving time in some European and Middle Eastern countries, which makes it ...

(

UTC+3 UTC+03:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +03:00. In areas using this time offset, the time is three hours later than the Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Following the ISO 8601 standard, a time with this offset would be wri ...

)

Results

Qualifying round

Qualification: All throwers reaching 49 metres advanced to the final, with a minimum of 12 advancing.

Final

References

External links

Official Olympic Report
''la84.org''. {{DEFAULTSORT:Athletics At The 1952 Summer Olympics - Men's Hammer Throw Athletics at the 1952 Summer Olympics Hammer throw at the Olympics Men's events at the 1952 Summer Olympics