Pál Németh (20 June 1937 – 9 January 2009) was a Hungarian sportsperson and later coach in

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 ...

ing. Born in Szentkirály, he was the son of athletics coach László Németh. During his own sporting career, Pál Németh played

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

and

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

, both in the highest Hungarian league. He took up hammer throwing at the age of 23, and opened his own training centre in 1964. He trained his own son Zsolt Németh,

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 ...

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 ...

and

Adrián Annus Adrián Annus (born 28 June 1973 in Szeged) is a Hungarian hammer thrower, who was stripped of his gold medal at the 2004 Summer Olympic Games in Athens for a doping violation in a highly publicized scandal. The disqualification received height ...

, among others. He was decorated several times, including the 1998

Coach of the Year Many sports leagues, sportswriting associations, and other organizations confer "Coach of the Year" awards. In some sports — including baseball and association football — the award is called the "Manager of the Year" award. Some of the ...

award. He was also an exhibited painter. He died on 9 January 2009 from

heart failure Heart failure (HF), also known as congestive heart failure (CHF), is a syndrome, a group of signs and symptoms caused by an impairment of the heart's blood pumping function. Symptoms typically include shortness of breath, excessive fatigue, a ...

. An annual hammer throwing meeting was established in his honour that same year – the Pál Németh Memorial. Held in

Szombathely Szombathely (; german: Steinamanger, ; see also other alternative names) is the 10th largest city in Hungary. It is the administrative centre of Vas county in the west of the country, located near the border with Austria. Szombathely lies by t ...

in September, Hungarian number one

won the first two meetings, which also attracted Olympic gold medallists

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. ...

and

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 ...

among others.Gyulai, Marton (2010-09-11)
Pars defends title at Pál Németh Memorial

IAAF World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation (from 1912 to 2001) and International Association of Athletics Federations (from 2001 to 2019, both abbreviated as the IAAF) is the international governing body for ...

. Retrieved on 2010-09-11.

References

1937 births 2009 deaths Hungarian male hammer throwers Hungarian men's basketball players Hungarian men's volleyball players Hungarian athletics coaches Sportspeople from Bács-Kiskun County {{Hungary-athletics-bio-stub