Athletics at the 1972 Summer Olympics – Men's triple jump

Men's triple jump at the Games of the XX Olympiad
Viktor Saneyev (1972)
Venue	Olympic Stadium, Munich, West Germany
Dates	3 September 1972 (qualifying) 4 September 1972 (final)
Competitors	36 from 28 nations
Winning distance	17.35
Medalists
Viktor Saneyev  Soviet Union Jörg Drehmel  East Germany Nelson Prudêncio  Brazil
← 1968 1976 →

Athletics at the 1972 Summer Olympics
Track events
100 m	men	women
200 m	men	women
400 m	men	women
800 m	men	women
1500 m	men	women
5000 m	men
10,000 m	men
100 m hurdles		women
110 m hurdles	men
400 m hurdles	men
3000 m steeplechase	men
4 × 100 m relay	men	women
4 × 400 m relay	men	women
Road events
Marathon	men
20 km walk	men
50 km walk	men
Field events
Long jump	men	women
Triple jump	men
High jump	men	women
Pole vault	men
Shot put	men	women
Discus throw	men	women
Javelin throw	men	women
Hammer throw	men
Combined events
Pentathlon		women
Decathlon	men
v t e

The men's triple jump event at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich was held on 3 & 4 of September.^[1] Thirty-six athletes from 28 nations competed.^[2] The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress. The event was won by Viktor Saneyev of the Soviet Union, the fourth man to repeat as Olympic champion in the triple jump. The Soviets were on the podium in the event for the sixth consecutive Games. Jörg Drehmel of East Germany won the first men's triple jump medal by any German jumper. Nelson Prudêncio of Brazil was the ninth man (Saneyev being the eighth) to win a second medal in the event, following up his 1968 silver with bronze in Munich.

This was the 17th appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics. Returning finalists from the 1968 Games were the top four (gold medalist Viktor Saneyev of the Soviet Union, silver medalist Nelson Prudêncio of Brazil, bronze medalist Giuseppe Gentile of Italy, and fourth-place finisher Art Walker of the United States) as well as eighth-place finisher Mansour Dia of Senegal. Saneyev was a favorite to repeat, but Jörg Drehmel of East Germany had beaten him at the 1971 European championships and was a serious contender for the gold medal. Pedro Pérez of Cuba had broken the world record in winning the Pan American Games, but that jump was an outlier for him and he was not expected to replicate it here.^[2]

Kenya, Malawi, and Saudi Arabia each made their first appearance in the event. The United States competed for the 17th time, having competed at each of the Games so far.

The competition used the two-round format introduced in 1936. In the qualifying round, each jumper received three attempts to reach the qualifying distance of 16.20 metres; if fewer than 12 men did so, the top 12 (including all those tied) would advance. In the final round, each athlete had three jumps; the top eight received an additional three jumps, with the best of the six to count.^[2][3]

Prior to the competition, the existing World and Olympic records were as follows.

World record	Pedro Pérez (CUB)	17.40	Cali, Colombia	5 August 1971
Olympic record	Viktor Saneyev (URS)	17.39	Mexico City, Mexico	17 October 1968

No new world and Olympic records were set during this competition.

All times are Central European Time (UTC+1)

All jumpers reaching 16.20 m (53 ft 2 in), shown in blue and the top 12 including ties advanced to the final round. All lengths are in metres

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Group	1	2	3	Distance	Notes
1	Viktor Saneyev	Soviet Union	B	16.85	—	—	16.85	Q
2	Jörg Drehmel	East Germany	A	16.57	—	—	16.57	Q
3	Mansour Dia	Senegal	A	16.55	—	—	16.55	Q
4	Carol Corbu	Romania	A	15.59	15.92	16.51	16.51	Q
5	Toshiaki Inoue	Japan	A	16.01	16.19	16.49	16.49	Q
6	Michał Joachimowski	Poland	B	16.43	—	—	16.43	Q
7	Nélson Prudêncio	Brazil	B	—	—	16.42	16.42	Q
8	Kristen Fløgstad	Norway	A	X	16.41	—	16.41	Q
9	Samuel Igun	Nigeria	A	15.19	X	16.33	16.33	Q
10	John Craft	United States	B	15.78	16.09	16.32	16.32	Q
11	Mikhail Bariban	Soviet Union	A	16.09	16.12	16.26	16.26	Q
12	Bernard Lamitié	France	A	16.24	—	—	16.24	Q
13	Gábor Katona	Hungary	B	16.19	15.43	14.89	16.19
14	Kosei Gushiken	Japan	B	16.19	X	X	16.19
15	Gennady Bessonov	Soviet Union	A	16.10	15.95	16.18	16.18
16	Giuseppe Gentile	Italy	B	15.79	X	16.04	16.04
17	Esa Rinne	Finland	A	15.49	15.98	15.76	15.98
18	Václav Fišer	Czechoslovakia	B	15.96	15.75	15.75	15.96
19	Heinz-Günter Schenk	East Germany	B	15.54	15.91	15.41	15.91
20	Mick McGrath	Australia	A	15.40	15.90	15.32	15.90
21	Johnson Amoah	Ghana	A	15.79	15.69	15.84	15.84
22	Abraham Munabi	Uganda	B	14.74	15.82	X	15.82
23	Moise Pomaney	Ghana	B	15.72	15.18	15.31	15.72
24	Pedro Pérez	Cuba	B	15.72	14.85	X	15.72
25	Milan Spasojević	Yugoslavia	A	15.63	15.69	13.33	15.69
26	Yukito Muraki	Japan	A	15.53	15.59	X	15.59
27	Tim Barrett	Bahamas	B	15.51	15.43	X	15.51
28	Wilfredo Maisonave	Puerto Rico	B	14.07	14.77	15.38	15.38
29	Art Walker	United States	B	X	15.29	X	15.29
30	Patrick Onyango	Kenya	B	X	X	14.74	14.74
31	Chen Ming-Chi	Republic of China	B	X	14.73	14.11	14.73
32	Dave Smith	United States	A	X	14.55	X	14.55
33	Ghazi Saleh Marzouk	Saudi Arabia	A	13.82	13.41	13.51	13.82
34	Martin Matupi	Malawi	A	13.57	X	13.34	13.57
—	Henry Jackson	Jamaica	A	X	X	X	No mark
	Mohinder Singh Gill	India	A	X	X	X	No mark
—	Martin Adouna	Togo	B	DNS
	Chodoton	Dahomey	B	DNS

At the end of three jumps the top eight received another three jumps. The remaining jumpers are eliminated from medal contention.

Rank	Athlete	Nation	1	2	3	4	5	6	Distance
	Viktor Saneyev	Soviet Union	17.35	16.71	17.19	X	16.98	X	17.35
	Jörg Drehmel	East Germany	X	17.02	X	X	17.31	15.34	17.31
	Nelson Prudêncio	Brazil	16.87	16.61	16.35	16.88	X	17.05	17.05
4	Carol Corbu	Romania	16.62	16.85	16.40	X	13.72	X	16.85
5	John Craft	United States	16.77	16.75	16.83	16.26	X	X	16.83
6	Mansour Dia	Senegal	16.77	16.83	X	X	16.15	X	16.83
7	Michał Joachimowski	Poland	16.69	X	14.62	14.98	X	X	16.69
8	Kristen Fløgstad	Norway	X	16.44	X	X	15.97	X	16.44
9	Mikhail Bariban	Soviet Union	X	16.30	15.96	Did not advance			16.30
10	Bernard Lamitié	France	16.22	15.88	16.27	Did not advance			16.27
11	Samuel Igun	Nigeria	X	15.79	16.03	Did not advance			16.03
12	Toshiaki Inoue	Japan	15.88	X	X	Did not advance			15.88

• Official report