Athletics at the 1972 Summer Olympics – Men's discus throw

Men's discus throw at the Games of the XX Olympiad
Venue	Olympic Stadium
Dates	September 1 & 2
Medalists
Ludvík Daněk  Czechoslovakia Jay Silvester  United States Ricky Bruch  Sweden

The men's discus throw field event at the 1972 Olympic Games took place on September 1 & 2. After the retirement of four time Olympic champion Al Oerter, this was an event that was open to everyone. The favorite was two time Olympic medalist and 1971 European Champion Ludvík Daněk.

Results

All throwers reaching 59.00 m (193 ft 7 in) and the top 12 including ties advanced to the finals. All qualifiers are shown in blue. All distances are listed in metres.

Qualifying

Rank	Name	Nationality	Group	Mark	1st throw	2nd throw	3rd throw
1	Ludvík Daněk	Czechoslovakia	B	64.32	64.32	p	p
2	Jorma Rinne	Finland	B	62.02	62.02	p	p
3	Géza Fejér	Hungary	B	61.58	61.58	p	p
4	Pentti Kahma	Finland	A	61.24	58.50	61.24	p
5	Ricky Bruch	Sweden	A	61.24	61.24	p	p
6	Jay Silvester	United States	A	61.20	58.98	61.20	p
7	Ferenc Tégla	Hungary	A	60.60	60.60	p	p
8	János Murányi	Hungary	B	60.34	54.42	60.34	p
9	Silvano Simeon	Italy	B	59.78	58.38	59.78	p
10	Tim Vollmer	United States	A	59.60	59.60	p	p
11	Namakoro Niaré	Mali	A	59.38	59.38	p	p
12	Detlef Thorith	East Germany	A	59.36	59.36	p	p
13	John Powell	United States	B	59.30	54.94	59.30	p
14	Les Mills	New Zealand	A	59.22	59.22	p	p
15	Klaus-Peter Hennig	West Germany	A	58.64	55.32	x	58.64
16	Dirk Wippermann	West Germany	B	58.10	56.42	58.10	57.96
17	Hein-Direck Neu	West Germany	A	58.10	56.36	58.10	x
18	Zdravko Pečar	Yugoslavia	B	57.84	x	57.84	53.52
19	Bill Tancred	Great Britain	B	57.24	x	55.86	57.24
20	Robin Tait	New Zealand	B	56.60	56.60	55.88	x
21	Ain Roost	Canada	A	56.58	56.58	55.48	x
22	Hartmut Losch	East Germany	B	56.64	56.64	x	56.28
23	Erlendur Valdimarsson	Iceland	B	55.38	55.38	55.16	53.26
24	John Watts	Great Britain	A	53.86	53.48	x	53.86
25	Kaj Andersen	Denmark	A	53.52	x	51.60	53.52
26	Praveen Kumar	India	B	53.12	52.58	53.12	51.58
27	Heimo Reinitzer	Austria	B	52.56	x	52.32	52.56
28	Said Farouk Al-Turki	Saudi Arabia	A	33.78	x	33.78	x
-	Armando de Vincentis	Italy	A	NM	x	x	x
-	Stoyan Slavkov	Bulgaria	A	DNS
-	Joussef Nagui Assad	Egypt	B	DNS
-	Noel Matouba	Republic of the Congo	B	DNS

Final

Rank	Name	Nationality	Mark	1st throw	2nd throw	3rd throw	4th throw	5th throw	6th throw
	Ludvík Daněk	Czechoslovakia	64.40	58.12	60.38	62.38	62.54	61.70	64.40
	Jay Silvester	United States	63.50	62.12	x	63.50	x	x	62.86
	Ricky Bruch	Sweden	63.40	59.12	x	61.52	62.76	63.40	62.60
4	John Powell	United States	62.82	61.92	62.82	60.44	x	61.38	x
5	Géza Fejér	Hungary	62.62	62.50	62.56	x	x	61.50	62.62
6	Detlef Thorith	East Germany	62.42	61.74	62.42	61.06	x	59.88	x
7	Ferenc Tégla	Hungary	60.60	58.38	59.66	57.40	x	58.16	60.60
8	Tim Vollmer	United States	60.24	59.26	60.24	x	x	x	58.54
9	Pentti Kahma	Finland	59.66	57.20	58.92	59.66
10	Silvano Simeon	Italy	59.34	58.80	59.34	58.36
11	Jorma Rinne	Finland	59.22	57.30	56.88	59.22
12	János Murányi	Hungary	57.92	57.92	57.16	x
13	Namakoro Niaré	Mali	56.48	56.48	55.10	x
14	Les Mills	New Zealand	55.86	x	54.48	55.86

Key: p = pass; x = fault; NM = no mark; DNS = did not start

References

• Sports Reference
• Official report