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

hammer throw The hammer throw (HT for short) is one of the four throwing events in regular outdoor track-and-field competitions, along with the discus throw, shot put and Javelin throw, javelin. The hammer used in this sport is not like any of the tools a ...

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 (appro ...

, 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, Krisztián Pars and Adrián Annus, 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 caused by an impairment in the heart's ability to Cardiac cycle, fill with and pump blood. Although symptoms vary based on which side of the heart is affected, HF ...

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

Szombathely } Szombathely (; ; also see #Etymology, 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 the streams ''Perint'' and '' ...

in September, Hungarian number one Krisztián Pars won the first two meetings, which also attracted Olympic gold medallists Primož Kozmus and Szymon Ziółkowski 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 and International Association of Athletics Federations and formerly abbreviated as the IAAF, is the international sports governing body, governing body for the sport ...

. 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 20th-century Hungarian sportsmen {{Hungary-athletics-bio-stub