The men's hammer throw at the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Na ...

took place on 15 August (qualifying) and 17 (final) at the

Beijing National Stadium The National Stadium (), also known as the Bird's Nest (), is an 80,000-capacity stadium in Beijing. The stadium was jointly designed by architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron from Basel-based architecture team Herzog & de Meuron, p ...

. There were 33 competitors from 26 nations. The event was won by

Primož Kozmus Primož Kozmus (born 30 September 1979 in Novo Mesto) is a Slovenian hammer thrower. His gold medals in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing and the 2009 World Championships in Berlin made him the first ever Slovenian athlete to win both titles. ...

of Slovenia, the nation's first medal in the event. The original silver and bronze medalists, Vadim Devyatovskiy and

Ivan Tsikhan Ivan Ryhoravich Tsikhan (born 24 July 1976) is a Belarusian hammer thrower. He is a two-time world champion and an Olympic medalist. Personal life Tsikhan was born in the village of Hloŭsievičy, Slonim district, Grodno Region, Belarusian ...

of Belarus, were disqualified in December 2008 for testing positive for abnormal levels of testosterone. The medals were awarded to

Krisztián Pars Krisztián Pars (; born 18 February 1982) is a Hungarian hammer thrower. He competed at the Summer Olympics in 2004, 2008, and 2012, winning the gold medal in 2012. He also won the 2012 and 2014 European championships. Career His personal be ...

of Hungary and Koji Murofushi of Japan respectively. Tsikhan announced that he and Devyatovskiy intended to appeal the IOC's decision. In June 2010 the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled that the disqualified Belarusians should get their original medals back due to errors at the Chinese medical lab.

Background

This was the 25th appearance of the event, which has been held at every Summer Olympics except 1896. Nine of the 12 finalists from the 2004 Games returned: gold medalist (and 2000 finalist) Koji Murofushi of Japan, bronze medalist

Eşref Apak Eşref Apak (born 3 January 1982 in Kalecik, Ankara) is a Turkish hammer thrower. Apak was a member of Fenerbahçe Athletics in Istanbul then transferred to Enkaspor, where he was coached by Artun Talay. The tall athlete at was a student of ...

of Turkey, fourth-place finisher Vadim Devyatovskiy of Belarus, fifth-place finisher

of Hungary, sixth-place finisher

of Slovenia, seventh-place finisher

Libor Charfreitag Libor Charfreitag (born 11 September 1977 in Trnava) is a former hammer thrower from Slovakia. His personal best throw is 81.81 metres, achieved in June 2003 in Prague. Career He was chosen Slovak athlete of the year in 2003. He attended Southe ...

of Slovakia, tenth-place finisher

Nicola Vizzoni Nicola Vizzoni (born 4 November 1973 in Pietrasanta, Province of Lucca) is a male hammer thrower from Italy. He won the silver medal at the 2000 Summer Olympics and ten years later at the 2010 European Athletics Championships. His personal be ...

of Italy, eleventh-place finisher Markus Esser of Germany, and

of Belarus, who at the time was the 2004 silver medalist but who would later be stripped of that medal. Tsikhan was also the three-time reigning (2003, 2005, 2007) World Champion (though the 2005 result would be stripped), with Kozmus the runner-up and Charfreitag third.

Szymon Ziółkowski Szymon Jerzy Ziółkowski (; born 1 July 1976 in Poznań) is a retired Poland, Polish hammer thrower and an Olympic Games, Olympic gold medal winner from 2000 Summer Olympics, Sydney 2000. He also won a gold medal at the 2001 World Championship ...

of Poland, the 2000 Olympic and 2001 World champion (and 2005 World Champion after Tsikhan's win was vacated), returned after not making the final in 2004. Egypt, Iceland, Latvia, and Turkmenistan each made their debut in the event. The United States appeared for the 24th time, most of any nation, having missed only the boycotted 1980 Games.

Qualification

The qualifying standards for the 2008 event were (A standard) and (B standard). Each

National Olympic Committee A National Olympic Committee (NOC) is a national constituent of the worldwide Olympic movement. Subject to the controls of the International Olympic Committee, NOCs are responsible for organizing their people's participation in the Olympic Games ...

(NOC) was able to enter up to three entrants providing they had met the A qualifying standard in the qualifying period (1 January 2007 to 23 July 2008). NOCs were also permitted to enter one athlete providing he had met the B standard in the same qualifying period. The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress.

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 78.00 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, Results Book for Athletics.

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows: No new world or Olympic records were set for this event.

Schedule

All times are China standard time ( UTC+8)

Results

Qualifying

Qualification: 78.00 (Q) or at least 12 best performers (q) advance to the final.

Final

The final was held on 17 August. The eight highest-ranked competitors after three rounds qualified for the final three throws to decide the medals.

References

External links

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Final results
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hammerthrow.wz

{{DEFAULTSORT:Athletics at the 2008 Summer Olympics - Men's hammer throw Athletics at the 2008 Summer Olympics Hammer throw at the Olympics Men's events at the 2008 Summer Olympics