So – it’s goodbye to 77.54! Nick Miller’s UK record of 77.55 in Karlstad today (22ND JULY 2015) adds a precious centimetre to a UK record that lasted ………...31 years, 71 days. Many, many congratulations to Nick!

That record was set at a British League Div 1 match (no Premiership in those days) at Aldersley Stadium, Wolverhampton on 12 May 1984. Amazingly the previous record had been set only the day before (77.02 by Matt Mileham in the USA) Quite a contrast to the wait this time!

The result as recorded in AW was:

1 Martin Girvan 77.54 (73.76, x, 77.54, 3 passes)
2 Mick Jones (U23) 66.12 
3 Paul Head (U20) 64.68
4 Marc Zaidman 51.82
5 Alan Woods 50.62
6 Trevor Walhen 44.60

B string Barry Baptiste 43.72

There was a big crowd for a British League match of 2,000 people – maybe because Seb Coe ran the second leg of the 4x400 relay for Haringey! They still didn’t win - finishing second in the race.

Other stars at this meet included:
Buster Watson, Mike McFarlane, Garry Cook, Steve Harris, Mark Holtom, Max Robertson, Gary Oakes, Eric McCalla, Fidelis Obikwu, John Herbert, Francis Agyepong, Mike Winch, Paul Mardle, Tony Zaidman, Neville Thompson, Kevin Brown, Graham Savory, Peter Yates, Simon Osborne and Darryl Brand – all UK internationals.

Martin Girvan made the Olympic final later in the summer – as did Robert Weir and Matt Mileham (previous record holders).

1984 is a long time ago now - but lots of famous names from those days are still heavily involved with athletics and hammer especially. It's still great, though, that this most enduring record has finally gone!