Farthest hammer throw (men)

The farthest hammer throw by a male athlete is 86.74 m (284 ft 6.9 in), by Yuriy Sedykh (USSR) at the European Athletics Championships in Stuttgart, Germany, on 30 August 1986. It was his sixth world record in the hammer.

Sedykh’s six throws at the European Athletics Championships (83.94 – 85.28 – 85.46 – 86.74 – 86.68 – 86.62) averaged 85.78, a distance that has been surpassed by only Sergey Litvinov, Sedykh’s compatriot, contemporary and great rival. (Ivan Tsikhan/Tikhon threw 86.73 m in 2005, but in 2014 the IAAF annulled his results from 2004–06 owing to doping offences).