Athletics at the 2016 Summer Olympics – Men's hammer throw

Summary

The hammer throw was an event that experienced a lot of problems. Initially the IAAF set the entry standard at 78.00 meters. With the ban of the Russian team from the Olympics, eliminating three top throwers in the world (and their potentially drug affected performances throwing off the bell curve), the IAAF had to lower the qualification standard to 77.00 meters. Still there were not sufficient qualified athletes to fill the quota of entries. Three American throwers Conor McCullough, Kibwé Johnson and Rudy Winkler, whose best marks were just below 77 meters, along with Amanmurad Hommadov, Javier Cienfuegos and Esref Apak were invited to fill the quota. Number 4 in the world qualifying Mostafa Al-Gamel and number 10 in 2016, Oleksandr Drygol did not enter. Drygol is a 50 year old, former Soviet thrower who switched his citizenship from Ukraine to Israel in 2016 in order to enter the Olympics. Dryhol would have been the oldest track and field athlete should have he competed.

With 76.50 m set as the automatic qualifying mark, only two athletes were able to manage the distance. One of them was 40 year old Ivan Tsikhan, who was previously stripped of a 2004 Olympic medal for doping and is only able to compete due to a second violation being overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport on a procedural technicality. Number one in the world, with the top 24 performances (meaning 24 separate meets) over the last two years, Paweł Fajdek, did not get out of the qualifying round, only managing 72.00 m to finish in 17th place. Highly ranked throwers Pavel Bareisha and Roberto Janet also did not get out of qualifying.

Tsikhan started the final with at 76.13 m as the first thrower in the competition. Two thrower later, Krisztián Pars managed a 74.77 m, but no other thrower in the round even threw that far until the last thrower, World Championships silver medalist Dilshod Nazarov edged ahead with a 76.16 m. On the next throw, at the beginning of the second round, Tsikhan improved his mark to 77.43 m, to again take the lead. During the round Pars improved his bronze medal position to 75.15. A few throwers later, Ashraf Amgad Elseify, a Sri Lankan born, Egyptian free agent throwing for Qatar threw 75.40, to move into third. Nazarov improved to 77.27 to sit in second place. In the third round, Diego del Real threw 76.05 to move into third. On the final throw of the round, Nazarov threw 78.07 to not only take the lead, but to earn the right to continue as the last thrower in the remaining rounds. It didn't matter because nobody was able to throw further. There were no leader improvements during the fourth round. In the fifth round, Marcel Lomnicky moved into fourth with a 75.97 and Elseify improved, before solidified his hold on silver with a 77.79, which Nazarov answered with a 78.68 m (258 ft 1 in) that proved to be the winner. Nazrov knew it was big, dropping to his knees in celebration before exiting the ring. In the final round, Wojciech Nowicki threw 77.73 m, to leap from seventh place to the bronze medal, just 6 cm out of silver. None of the other athletes were able to answer.

Nazarov won the first gold medal for Tajikistan.

The following evening the medals were presented by Irena Szewińska, IOC member, Poland and Sergey Bubka, Senior Vice President of the IAAF.

Competition format

Each athlete received three throws in the qualifying round. All who achieved the qualifying distance progress to the final. If less than twelve athletes achieved this mark, then the twelve furthest throwing athletes reached the final. Each finalist was allowed three throws in last round, with the top eight athletes after that point being given three further attempts.

Schedule

All times are Brasilia Time (UTC-3)

Records

Prior to the competition, the existing World and Olympic records were as follows.

Qualifying round

Progression rules: qualifying performance 76.50 (Q) or at least 12 best performers (q) advance to the Final