The women's discus throw field event at the 1972 Olympic Games took place on September 9 & September 10. Armenia Soviet Faina Melnik was the strong favorite to win the gold. She has broken the world record five times since 1971 as well as being the European Champion in the same year. But twice in 1972 she had been beaten by Romanian Argentina Menis. Menis took the lead in round one breaking the Olympic record throw of . In the start of the fourth round Menis lead with Melnik in fifth. Menis then improved her distance to . Melnike threw next and overtook Menis with a throw of which held on to win the gold. Thirteen days later, Menis broke Melnik's world record with a throw of .

Records Standing records prior to the 1972 Summer OlympicsWorld record   66.76 m July 4, 1972  Moscow, Soviet UnionOlympic record   58.28 m October 18, 1968  Mexico City, MexicoBroken records during the 1972 Summer OlympicsOlympic record   66.62 m September 10, 1972  Munich, West Germany

Results All throwers reaching 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 Mark 1st throw 2nd throw 3rd throw 1 Argentina Menis 61.58OR 61.58 p p 2 Faina Melnik 61.26 53.00 61.26 p 3 Tamara Danilova 60.34 60.34 p p 4 Gabriele Hinzmann 59.80 59.80 p p 5 Liesel Westermann 58.26 58.26 p p 6 Carmen Ionescu 57.82 x 57.82 p 7 Brigitte Berendonk 56.90 54.74 56.90 p 8 Svetla Bozhkova 56.42 54.52 56.42 p 9 Lia Manoliu 55.88 55.88 p p 10 Rosemary Payne 55.56 x 53.56 55.56 11 Vasilka Stoeva 55.26 x 55.26 p 12 Lyudmila Muravyova 55.24 55.24 p p 13 Josephine de la Viña 53.29 51.08 x 53.29 14 Radostina Vasekova 53.86 x x 53.86 15 Krystyna Nadolna 52.52 x 47.42 52.52 16 Olga Connolly 51.58 51.58 x 50.76 17 Maggy Wauters 49.62 49.62 x x – Ok-Ja Paik DNS – Jolán Kleiber-Kontsek DNS – Rosa Molina DNS

Final

Rank Name Nationality Mark 1st throw 2nd throw 3rd throw 4th throw 5th throw 6th throw Faina Melnik 66.62OR 60.56 61.32 57.96 66.62OR 62.76 x Argentina Menis 65.06 64.28OR 59.82 60.88 65.06OR 63.78 64.90 Vasilka Stoeva 64.34 61.08 x 64.20 62.24 64.34 62.10 4 Tamara Danilova 62.86 62.64OR 58.14 62.86 61.14 x x 5 Liesel Westermann 62.18 x 57.04 62.18 61.66 x x 6 Gabriele Hinzmann 61.72 57.52 59.14 60.12 61.08 61.72 60.22 7 Carmen Ionescu 60.42 57.78 58.76 57.06 59.08 x 60.42 8 Lyudmila Muravyova 59.00 57.52 57.92 59.00 x 58.86 57.20 9 Lia Manoliu 58.50 58.18 58.50 x 10 Svetla Bozhkova 56.72 56.50 56.72 x 11 Brigitte Berendonk 56.58 55.60 x 56.58 12 Rosemary Payne 56.50 56.50 x 52.26

Key: OR = Olympic record; p = pass; x = fault; NM = no mark

References

External links Official report