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 ...
was an event at the
1992 Summer Olympics
The 1992 Summer Olympics ( es, Juegos Olímpicos de Verano de 1992, ca, Jocs Olímpics d'estiu de 1992), officially known as the Games of the XXV Olympiad ( es, Juegos de la XXV Olimpiada, ca, Jocs de la XXV Olimpíada) and commonly known as ...
in
Barcelona, Spain
Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...
. There were 27 participating athletes from 19 nations. The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress.
In this Olympics, the Unified Team comprised some of the republics of the former
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
Tajikistan
Tajikistan (, ; tg, Тоҷикистон, Tojikiston; russian: Таджикистан, Tadzhikistan), officially the Republic of Tajikistan ( tg, Ҷумҳурии Тоҷикистон, Jumhurii Tojikiston), is a landlocked country in Centr ...
,
Igor Astapkovich
Ihar Astapkovich (also Igor Vyacheslavovich Astapkovich, be, Ігар Вячаслававіч Астапковіч; born 4 January 1963, in Navapolatsk) is a hammer thrower who won two Olympic medals, first representing the Soviet Union and lat ...
from
Belarus
Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by R ...
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
created a
sweep
Sweep or swept may refer to:
Cleaning
* Sweep, the action of using a brush to clean
* Chimney sweep, a worker who clears ash and soot from chimneys
* Street sweeper, a person's occupation, or a machine that cleans streets
* Swept quartz, a clean ...
for the Unified Team. It was the fourth sweep in five Games for Soviet/Unified Team athletes; only the boycotted 1984 Games broke the consistent dominance of the Soviets.
The three dominated the competition in the late 80s and early 90s. Astapkovich, the strongest in the season, held the lead after the first round and retook it in the third. Abduvaliyev settled it with his fourth round throw while both Astapkovich and Nikulin hit their best throws in the final round, they could not match it.
Background
This was the 21st appearance of the event, which has been held at every Summer Olympics except 1896. Six of the 12 finalists from the 1988 Games returned: two-time bronze medalist
Jüri Tamm
Jüri Tamm (5 February 1957 – 22 September 2021) was an Estonian hammer thrower and politician. Representing the USSR
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that ...
of the Soviet Union (now competing for independent Estonia), fifth-place finisher
Heinz Weis
Heinz Weis (born 14 July 1963) is a male former hammer thrower from Germany. He competed for West Germany until 1990.
Weis was born in Trier, Rhineland-Palatinate, and at club level represented TV 1863 Germania Trier. He was coached initially b ...
of West Germany (now competing for united Germany), sixth-place finisher
Tibor Gécsek
Tibor Gécsek (born 22 September 1964 in Szentgotthárd) is a retired male hammer thrower from Hungary. Gécsek is of Hungarian Slovenian descent.
He won two consecutive World Championships bronze medals in 1993 and 1995. Later that year he re ...
of Hungary, eighth-place finisher Ivan Tanev of Bulgaria, tenth-place finisher
Johann Lindner
Johann "Hans" Lindner (born 3 May 1959 in Tragail, Paternion, Carinthia) is a retired hammer thrower from Austria, who represented his native country in three consecutive Summer Olympics, starting in 1984. He also competed at the Winter Olympics ...
of Austria, and eleventh-place finisher
Tore Gustafsson
Lars Tore Gustafsson (born February 11, 1962, in Göteborg, Västra Götaland) is a retired male hammer thrower from Sweden, who competed at three consecutive Summer Olympics, starting in 1988 (Seoul, South Korea). Since his retirement from compe ...
of Sweden. The Soviet trio that had swept the Olympic medals in both 1980 and 1988, and won the World Championships in 1983 ( Sergey Litvinov), 1987 (Litvinov), and 1991 (
Yuriy Sedykh
ukr, Юрій Георгійович Сєдих
, native_name_lang =
, years active = 1976–1995Andrey Abduvaliyev, was still dominant and heavily favored.
Bahrain, the People's Republic of China, and Lithuania each made their debut in the event. Some former Soviet Republics competed as the Unified Team; others (Lithuania and Estonia, appearing independently for the first time since 1936) competed separately. The United States appeared for the 20th time, most of any nation, having missed only the boycotted 1980 Games.
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 76.00 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 eight competitors receiving an additional three attempts. The best distance among those six throws counted.Official Report, vol. 5, p. 51.
Records
Prior to the competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.
No new world or Olympic records were set during the competition.
Schedule
All times are
Central European Summer Time
Central European Summer Time (CEST), sometimes referred to as Central European Daylight Time (CEDT), is the standard clock time observed during the period of summer daylight-saving in those European countries which observe Central European Time ...
(
UTC+2
UTC+02:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +02:00. In ISO 8601, the associated time would be written as 2020-11-08T23:41:45+02:00. This time is used in:
As standard time (year-round)
''Principal cities: Cairo, Pretoria, Cape ...