Uwe Hohn (© Allsport)
Berlin – ISTAF 2002, the final meeting of this year’s IAAF Golden League has moved from one marvellous World record venue to another without even having to move city!
A remarkable total of 84 ratified World records have been set in the city of Berlin, with an impressive total of 26 having been recorded in the 1936 Olympic stadium, the traditional home of ISTAF meeting.
However, due to renovation work being carried out on the Olympic stadium, when Germany’s premier meeting takes place this Friday 6 September it will have a temporary new home in the Friedrich Ludwig Jahn Sportpark, on the eastern side of the capital city.
Thanks to Berlin’s impressive athletics history, the relocation merely means that one illustrious venue has been replaced by another, as the Friedrich Ludwig Jahn Sportpark has been the site of 25 records.
In fact ISTAF’s new home holds a particularly special place in athletics history. On the 20 July 1984, the figures 104.80 resounded round the world of javelin throwing. At the XXII Olympic Day meet in the then East Germany, Uwe Hohn with his second throw of the competition obliterated the 13 month old World record of America’s Tom Petranoff (99.72), to become the first man over 100m.
A new throwing era had dawned and with it came the realization that with such distances the javelin was potentially a threat, even to members of the crowd. By 1986 a new specification implement was introduced, which by moving the centre of gravity forwards by 4cm, both reduced the distances that could be thrown and enabled the javelin always to stick in the ground for easier measurement.
As well as a new venue in 2002, ISTAF is also under the control of new meeting organisers who will no doubt hope that just as Hohn’s gigantic throw was a watershed in the history of javelin throwing, so a change of venue and new management will also mark the renaissance of a meeting which has been a German sporting icon since 1921.
World records set at Friedrich Ludwig Jahn Sportpark (25) -
Women's 100m Hurdles - 12.9 Karin Balzer GDR 5-9-1969
Men's 50,000m Track Walk - 4:08:05.0 Christoph Höhne GDR 18-10-1969
Men's 30M Track Walk - 4:00:06.4+ Christoph Höhne GDR 18-10-1969
Men's Pole Vault - 5.45 Wolfgang Nordwig GDR 17-6-1970
Women's 100m Hurdles - 12.7 Karin Balzer GDR 26-7-1970
Women's 100m -11.0 Renate Meissner GDR 2-8-1970
Men's 30,000m Track Walk 2:15:16.0 Christoph Höhne GDR 11-4-1971
Men's Two Hours Track Walk - 26,658m+ Peter Frenkel GDR 11-4-1971
Women's 100m Hurdles - 12.7 Karin Balzer GDR 25-7-1971
Women's 100m - 11.0 Renate Stecher-Meissner GDR 31-7-1971
Women's 100m Hurdles - 12.6 Karin Balzer GDR 31-7-1971
Men's 30,000m Track Walk - 2:14:45.6 Karl-Heinz Stadtmüller GDR 16-4-1972
Men's Two Hours Track Walk - 26,911m+ Karl-Heinz Stadtmüller GDR 16-4-1972
Men's 30,000m Track Walk - 2:14:21.2 Peter Frenkel GDR 14-4-1974
Men's Two Hours Track Walk - 26,930m+ Peter Frenkel GDR 14-4-1974
Women's 4x100 Metres Relay - 42.6 German Democratic Republic GDR 24-8-1974
Women's High Jump - 1.94 Rosemarie Witschas GDR 24-8-1974
Women's Shot Put - 21.60 Marianne Adam GDR 6-8-1975
Women's Javelin Throw - 69.12 Ruth Fuchs GDR 10-7-1976
Women's 4x100m Relay - 42.09 German Democratic Republic GDR 9-7-1980
Men's Two Hours Track Walk - 28,358m+ Ralf Kowalsky GDR 28-3-1982
Women's 100m - 10.81 Marlies Göhr GDR 8-6-1983
Women's 4x100m Relay - 41.53 German Democratic Republic GDR 31-7-1983
Men's Javelin Throw - 104.80 Uwe Hohn GDR 20-7-1984
Women's High Jump - 2.07 Lyudmila Andonova BUL 20-7-1984
