Hreinn Halldórsson (born 3 March 1949) is an

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

ic former

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping eve ...

athlete who competed in the shot put. His personal best for the discipline was , a former national record. He twice represented his country at the Summer Olympics and was the gold medallist at the

European Athletics Indoor Championships The European Athletics Indoor Championships is a biennial indoor track and field competition for European athletes that is organised by the European Athletic Association. It was held for the first time in 1970, replacing the European Indoor Games ...

in 1977 (Iceland's first medallist at the competition).

Career

Halldórsson was affiliated with

KR Reykjavík KR is the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 and WMO country code for South Korea. KR or Kr may also refer to: Sports * KR (basketball club), associated with Knattspyrnufélag Reykjavíkur * Knattspyrnufélag Reykjavíkur, an Icelandic football club * Kickoff ...

sports club during his career.Hreinn Halldórsson
. Sports Reference. Retrieved on 2015-07-12. He won several national titles in his career, including straight titles from 1975 to 1981. His throw of to win the 1977 Icelandic title remains the best ever mark at the competition. Internationally, Halldórsson had four consecutive wins at the European Cup qualifiers from 1975 to 1981, including a meet record of . His first major competition was the

1974 European Athletics Championships The 11th European Athletics Championships of 1974 were held from 2 September to 8 September in Italy, at Rome's Stadio Olimpico. Contemporaneous reports on the event were given in the Glasgow Herald. Men's results Complete results were pu ...

, but the 25-year-old Halldórsson failed to make it out of the qualifying round. After a ninth-place finish at the

1976 European Athletics Indoor Championships The 1976 European Athletics Indoor Championships were held at Olympiahalle in Munich, West Germany, in February 1976. The track used at this edition was 179 metres long. Medal summary Men Women Medal table Participating nations * (3) * (7) ...

, he entered the

1976 Summer Olympics Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 P ...

, where he came 15th in the qualifying round. He topped the podium at the

1977 European Athletics Indoor Championships The 1977 European Athletics Indoor Championships were held in San Sebastián, a city in Spain, on 12 and 13 March 1977. Medal summary Men Women Medal table Participating nations * (12) * (12) * (8) * (17) * (9) * (26) * (10) * (3) * (11) ...

, taking the first and only continental gold medal of his career. This made him the first Icelandic medallist and champion of the competition and he remains he only male to have topped the podium (

Vala Flosadóttir Vala Flosadóttir (born 16 February 1978 in Reykjavík) is an Icelandic former athlete competing in the pole vault. Biography She saw her heyday in the late nineties, when she set five world junior records and two world indoor records. She won va ...

won the women's pole vault in 1996). Later that year he threw a personal best of , which ranked him fourth in the world and was an Icelandic national record (he remains the country's second best shot putter after Pétur Guðmundsson).Drög að afrekaskrá FRÍ frá upphafi
. Icelandic Athletics Federation. Retrieved on 2015-07-12. Halldórsson was unable to translate his indoor win to an outdoor one at the

1978 European Athletics Championships The 12th European Athletics Championships were held from 29 August to 3 September 1978 in the Stadion Evžena Rošického in Prague, the capital city of Czechoslovakia (present-day Czech Republic). Contemporaneous reports on the event were given ...

, placing eighth. His season's best of again ranked him in the top five globally. There were no major events for him to aim for in the 1979 season, but his throw of that year ranked him in the global top ten.Hreinn Halldorsson
Track and Field Brinkster. Retrieved on 2015-07-12. His highest placing at a world-level event came at the

1980 Moscow Olympics The 1980 Summer Olympics (russian: Летние Олимпийские игры 1980, Letniye Olimpiyskiye igry 1980), officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad (russian: Игры XXII Олимпиады, Igry XXII Olimpiady) and commo ...

, where he threw in qualifying, then in the final for tenth place. The latter performance was a metre down on his best that season. In his final top level international competition he was sixth at the

1981 European Athletics Indoor Championships The 1981 European Athletics Indoor Championships were held in Grenoble, a city in France, between 21–22 February 1981. It was the second time the championships were held in the city. The track used for the championships was 180 metres long. Meda ...

International competitions

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Halldorsson, Hreinn Living people 1949 births Hreinn Halldorsson Hreinn Halldorsson Athletes (track and field) at the 1976 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1980 Summer Olympics