Uwe Hohn
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| Medal record | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 Uwe Hohn |
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| Men’s Athletics | |||
Competitor for  East Germany |
|||
| IAAF World Cup in Athletics | |||
| Gold | 1985 Canberra | Javelin | |
| European Championships | |||
| Gold | 1982 Athens | Javelin | |
Uwe Hohn (born 16 July 1962 in Rheinsberg, Brandenburg) is a German athlete and coach. Hohn was the first athlete to throw a javelin more than 100 meters; his record-setting throw resulted in comprehensive changes to javelin's design.
On 20 July 1984, competing in the Olympic Day of Athletics competition at the Friedrich Ludwig Jahn Sportpark, Berlin, Hohn threw the javelin a distance of 104.80 meters. Uwe Hohn's incredible throw had shattered the previous world standard of 99.72 meters set by Tom Petranoff of the United States in May of 1983. The East German's prodigious effort fueled ongoing discussion and speculation regarding the likelihood of alterations to the javelin's design and flight characteristics; in fact, Uwe Hohn's world record necessitated a change in the rules (effective 1986).
For safety reasons the International Amateur Athletic Federation had to redesign the javelin to "underperform",[1] so that the javelin would have a steeper flight path and thus fall faster to the ground. The record statistics had to therefore be restarted, and the record of Uwe Hohn thus became an "eternal world record". The current world record under the new rules, set by Czech Jan Železný, stands at 98.48 meters.
The GDR boycotted the 1984 Olympic Games, and Hohn was included in that boycott and could not win an international medal in the year that he achieved his world record. Two years later, his career ended after several setbacks due to surgery. He then became an assistant coach, and since 1999 he has worked as a coach at SC Potsdam, the successor of ASK Vorwärts Potsdam, where he started his career as a sportsman.
Hohn has been married since 1983 and has two children. He is 1.98m tall and had a match weight of 112kg.
[edit] Achievements
- 1976 to 1980: GDR champion for his age group
- 1981: Junior European champion for the GDR starting in Utrecht with 86.58 m; Junior European record with 86.58 m
- 1982: European Champion in Athens with 91.34 m
- 1984: GDR sportsman of the year
- 1985: Won the javelin event at the 1985 IAAF World Cup in Athletics - Canberra with 96.96 m (best performance in the world of the year[2])
[edit] References
- This article is based on a translation of an article from the German Wikipedia.
- ^ The 10 greatest performances in the history of athletics, Duncan Mackay, The Observer, 5 August 2001
- ^ World Top Performers 1980-2005: Men (Outdoor) - GBR Athletics
[edit] External links
- (German) Personal Homepage
| Awards | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Uwe Raab |
East German Sportsman of the Year 1984 |
Succeeded by Jens Weißflog |
| Sporting positions | ||
Preceded by Tom Petranoff |
Men's Javelin Best Year Performance 1984 and 1985 |
Succeeded by Klaus Tafelmeier |
