The men's hammer throw competition at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens was held at the Olympic Stadium on 20–22 August. There were 35 competitors from 24 nations. After a series of doping-related disqualifications, the event was won by Koji Murofushi of Japan, the nation's first medal in the event. All distances are given in metres.

Disqualifications

The event was marred by doping-related disqualifications, with the original first- and third-place athletes being removed. Adrián Annus of Hungary originally won the competition, but he was disqualified after being found guilty of tampering with his sample at the doping control. The original runner-up, Koji Murofushi, was accordingly declared the 2004 Olympic champion.

Originally, Ivan Tsikhan won the bronze medal. With Annus's disqualification, Tsikhan moved up to the silver medal. However, he was disqualified in 2012 after a retest of his samples from 2004 were positive for methandienone. Tsikhan withdrew from the 2012 Summer Olympics as a result. The silver and bronze medal were not re-awarded. The athlete in a position to be elevated to the Olympic silver medal, Eşref Apak of Turkey, received a 2-year doping ban in 2013 for the use of a prohibited substance, which lasted from 8 June 2013 to 25 June 2015. The athlete in a position to be elevated to the Olympic bronze medal, Vadim Devyatovskiy of Belarus, had previously been subject to a court case by the International Olympic Committee regarding doping at the 2008 Summer Olympics. Аs the next two finishers Eşref Apak and Vadim Devyatovskiy had both been suspended from the sport for doping offenses since 2004, the IOC decided to declare the silver and bronze medals vacant, leaving the only medalists as Murofushi with gold (in the official publication of the results, Eşref Apak is listed second, but without getting a silver medal, Vadim Devyatovskiy is listed third, but without getting a bronze medal).

Background

This was the 24th appearance of the event, which has been held at every Summer Olympics except 1896. Seven of the 12 finalists from the 2000 Games returned: gold medalist (and 1996 finalist) Szymon Ziółkowski of Poland, silver medalist Nicola Vizzoni of Italy, bronze medalist (and 1992 silver medalist and 1996 finalist) Igor Astapkovich of Belarus, fifth-place finisher (and 1996 finalist) Ilya Konovalov of Russia, eighth-place finisher Vladimír Maška of the Czech Republic, ninth-place finisher Koji Murofushi of Japan, and twelfth-place finisher Alexandros Papadimitriou of Greece. The last two World Champions were Ziółkowski (2001) and Ivan Tsikhan of Belarus (2003). Tikhon, 2002 European champion Adrián Annus of Hungary, and Murofushi (bronze medalist in the 2003 World Championship and who, in 2003, had the best throw of anyone since 1986—a mark that is still, in 2021, the fourth-best throw of all time) were the favorites.

Albania, Tajikistan, and Turkey each made their debut in the event. The United States appeared for the 23rd time, most of any nation, having missed only the boycotted 1980 Games.

Qualification

The qualification period for Athletics was 1 January 2003 to 9 August 2004. For the men's hammer throw, each National Olympic Committee was permitted to enter up to three athletes that had thrown 78.65 metres or further during the qualification period. The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress. If an NOC had no athletes that qualified under that standard, one athlete that had thrown 74.35 metres or further could be entered.

Competition format

Each athlete received three throws in the qualifying round. All who achieved the qualifying distance of 78.00 metres progressed to the final. If fewer than twelve athletes achieved this mark, then the twelve furthest throwing athletes would reach the final. Each finalist was allowed three throws in last round, with the top eight athletes after that point being given three further attempts.

Records

, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.

No new records were set during the competition.

Schedule

All times are Greece Standard Time (UTC+2)

Date Time Round Friday, 20 August 2004 9:15 Qualifying Sunday, 22 August 2004 21:15 Final

Results

Qualifying

Rule: Qualifying standard 78.00 (Q) or at least best 12 qualified (q).

Rank Group Athlete Nation 1 2 3 Distance Notes 1 B Ivan Tsikhan 77.85 77.12 80.78 80.78 2 A Adrián Annus 79.59 — — 79.59 3 B Krisztián Pars 77.43 80.50 — 80.50 4 B Koji Murofushi 79.55 — — 79.55 5 B Primož Kozmus 76.97 78.81 — 78.81 , 6 A Markus Esser 76.39 75.29 77.49 77.49 7 B Libor Charfreitag X X 77.30 77.30 8 A Igor Astapkovich 76.70 76.08 76.88 76.88 9 B Nicola Vizzoni 76.84 75.35 75.03 76.84 10 A Eşref Apak X X 76.74 76.74 11 B Vadim Devyatovskiy 71.69 74.81 76.72 76.72 12 B Karsten Kobs 76.69 X X 76.69 13 A Ilya Konovalov 75.40 X 76.36 76.36 14 A Szymon Ziółkowski 76.12 74.55 76.17 76.17 15 B Miloslav Konopka 74.42 X 76.16 76.16 16 A Olli-Pekka Karjalainen X 74.51 76.11 76.11 17 B Sergey Kirmasov 75.12 73.68 75.83 75.83 18 A Aléxandros Papadimitríou X X 75.55 75.55 19 A Oleksandr Krykun X 75.42 74.37 75.42 20 B Artem Rubanko 75.08 X X 75.08 21 B James Parker 73.15 74.09 75.04 75.04 22 B András Haklits X 73.51 74.43 74.43 23 B David Söderberg X X 74.14 74.14 24 A Patric Suter 72.45 X 73.54 73.54 25 B Yuriy Voronkin 73.47 71.97 X 73.47 26 A Stuart Rendell X 72.61 X 72.61 27 A Juan Ignacio Cerra 69.10 72.53 68.64 72.53 28 A Vítor Costa 72.47 72.44 X 72.47 29 A Roman Rozna X X 71.78 71.78 30 A Vladimír Maška 71.76 X X 71.76 31 B Ali Al-Zinkawi 70.67 71.06 70.68 71.06 32 B Dorian Çollaku 70.06 69.27 67.61 70.06 33 A A.G. Kruger 69.38 68.03 X 69.38 — A Vladyslav Piskunov X X X A Dilshod Nazarov X X X

Final Rank Athlete Nation 1 2 3 4 5 6 Distance Notes Koji Murofushi 79.90 81.60 81.16 82.35 X 82.91 82.91 Silver medal not awardedBronze medal not awarded 2 Eşref Apak 75.79 79.51 X 79.23 75.15 76.34 79.51 3 Vadim Devyatovskiy 78.67 78.82 X 75.41 76.61 X 78.82 4 Krisztián Pars 76.94 78.16 77.55 78.73 X 77.26 78.73 5 Primož Kozmus 75.82 77.08 76.45 78.56 77.61 78.24 78.56 6 Libor Charfreitag 74.93 77.52 77.30 75.60 77.54 73.06 77.54 7 Karsten Kobs 75.72 75.97 76.30 Did not advance 76.30 8 Igor Astapkovich X X 76.22 Did not advance 76.22 9 Nicola Vizzoni 74.27 72.97 73.02 Did not advance 74.27 10 Markus Esser 72.51 X 71.31 Did not advance 72.51 — Adrián Annus 80.53 82.32 83.19 82.64 82.04 — 83.19 — Ivan Tsikhan X X78.5578.3179.81 X79.81 IOC decided to declare the silver and bronze medals vacant (in the official publication of the results, Eşref Apak is listed second, but without getting a silver medal, Vadim Devyatovskiy is listed third, but without getting a bronze medal).

References

External links Official Olympic Report