Athletics at the 1956 Summer Olympics – Men's discus throw

Left-right: Koch, Oerter, Gordien
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These are the official results of the Men's Discus Throw event at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia. The qualifying round and the final both were held on Tuesday November 27, 1956.[1]

Fortune Gordien came into the Olympics as the world record holder for most of the previous seven years. He had lost the record for a 3 week gap in 1953 to 1952 Olympic champion Sim Iness, before he made another improvement at a small Pasadena, California all comers track meet. Gordien threw the longest throw of the year while winning the United States Olympic Trials by almost three metres over a 20 year old upstart from the University of Kansas, Al Oerter. The third qualifier at those trials was Ron Drummond, but with almost five months to wait until the Olympics, he gave up his Olympic spot to go to dental school, allowing 4th place Des Koch the opportunity to go to Melbourne.

In the qualifying round, Oerter threw 51.19m to easily qualify ahead of Commonwealth Games champion Fanie du Plessis and returning silver medalist, 39 year old Adolfo Consolini. The format allowed all who cleared 47 metres to qualify to the finals, Gordien's 47.67m made the distance by a little over 2 feet, still he was the twelfth qualifier. The sixteenth and last qualifier into the final was Koch, just 14cm, less than 6 inches over the minimum.

In the first round of the final, Oerter threw an Olympic record 56.36 m (184 ft 10 in), Gordien 54.75m was second best while Mark Pharaoh held third a meter and a half ahead of Consolini. Those positions held into the third round. With only six going into the final, Koch was in 10th place, needing a big improvement to get into the final. Koch's 53.55m put him into third place. He improved on both his next two attempts to get to 54.40m. In the final round, Pharaoh improved to 54.27m but still 14cm short of bronze, Gordien improved marginally to 54.81m and Oerter made his third throw of the competition superior to the silver medal throw.

This was the second American sweep of the Discus Throw (after 1908). Oerter would lead another sweep four years later and would go on to his own sweep, winning the same event four times in a row, an Olympic record.

Final classification

RANKNAME ATHLETEDISTANCE
 Alfred Oerter (USA) 56.36 m
 Fortune Gordien (USA) 54.81 m
 Desmond Koch (USA) 54.40 m
4.  Mark Pharaoh (GBR) 54.27 m
5.  Oto Grigalka (URS) 52.37 m
6.  Adolfo Consolini (ITA) 52.21 m
7.  Ferenc Klics (HUN) 51.82 m
8.  Dako Radosević (YUG) 51.69 m
9.  Boris Matveyev (URS) 51.38 m
10.  Gerry Carr (GBR) 50.72 m
11.  Günther Kruse (ARG) 49.89 m
12.  Kim Bukhantsov (URS) 48.58 m
13.  Fanie du Plessis (RSA) 48.49 m
14.  Erik Uddebom (SWE) 48.28 m
15.  Mesulame Rakuro (FIJ) 47.24 m
16.  Hernán Haddad (CHI) 46.00 m
—  Vesmonis Balodis (AUS) DNQ
—  Muhammad Ayub (PAK) DNQ
—  Pierre Alard (FRA) DNQ
—  Tadeusz Rut (POL) DNQ

References

  1. ↑ "Athletics at the 1956 Melbourne Summer Games: Men's Discus Throw". sports-reference.com. Retrieved 11 January 2018.
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