Igor Nikulin (athlete)
Igor Nikulin Jurjewitsch (Russian Игорь Юрьевич Никулин; born August 14, 1960 in Moscow ) is a former track and field athlete, who competed for the Soviet Union until 1991, 1992 for the United Team of the CIS and from 1993 for Russia. Nikulin was in the hammer throw at the best athletes of his time.
Career
Igor Nikulin is the son of Yuri Nikulin, the Olympic Fourth in the hammer throw of 1964. 1979 won Nikulin at the Junior European Championships the title with 71.56 meters. In 1980 occupied Nikulin at the Soviet Championship in second place behind Yuri Sedych and before Sergei Litvinov. But Sedych, Litvinov and Jüri Tamm Este were nominated for the Soviet Olympic team, which also occupied the first three places in that order. In 1981, Nikulin, but in the absence of the three Olympic medalists, his first Soviet title. In the Universiade 1981 Nikulin took the third place. 1982 could Nikulin defend his Soviet Championship title with 80.14 meters, he won clearly ahead of Litvinov. The two throwers represented together with Sedych the Soviet Union at the European Championships in 1982 in Athens. Sedych won the title with 81.66 meters before Nikulin with 79.44 meters and Litvinov.
In the Soviet Cup in 1983, Litvinov won before Nikulin, Sedych was only fourth. At the first World Championships in Athletics in Helsinki, Litvinov won before Sedych. Third was the Pole Zdzisław Kwaśny with 79.42 meters, Nikulin was at the end with 79.34 meters in fourth place. 1984 won his third Nikulin Soviet league titles, but because of the Olympic boycott of the Soviet Union, he missed again an Olympic participation. 1985 Nikulins season highlight was the Universiade, where he won a bronze medal.
At the European Championships in 1986 in Stuttgart Yuri Sedych won with a new world record of 86.74 meters in front of Litvinov with 85.76 meters. Igor Nikulin won the bronze medal with 82.00 meters, he'd turn over two meters ahead of fourth-placed Gunther Rodehau. A year later at the 1987 World Championships in Rome surpassed equal to six launchers eighty -meter mark. In the absence of Sedych Litvinov defended his title successfully. Jüri Tamm won the silver ahead of Ralf Haber and Christoph Sahner, Nikulin finished with 80.18 meters to fifth place at the same distance to the sixth placed Heinz Weis. 1988 Litvinov, Sedych and Tamm nominated for the Olympic Games and won in this order, the three medals. At the European Championships 1990 in Split by the three Olympic medalists was not at the start. Ihar Astapkowitsch, Andrei Abduwalijew and Igor Nikulin should represent the Soviet Union, but Abduwalijew entered because of an injury not for the qualification. European champion Astapkowitsch before Hungary Tibor Gécsek, with twelve centimeters behind Gécsek Nikulin took third place with a distance of 80.02 meters.
After it was Nikulin never been able to qualify for a Soviet Olympic team, he brought it in 1992 with the United team still to Olympic participation. As 1980 and 1988 went again all three medals in the territory of the now former Soviet Union, behind Abduwalijew and Astapkowitsch Nikulin won the bronze medal with 81.38 meters and ten feet ahead of Tibor Gécsek.
After winning the Russian national champion title in 1994 Nikulin finally came for Russia at the European Championships in Helsinki in 1994, with 78.38 meters he had fourth ten centimeters behind Heinz Weis, who won the bronze medal.
Nikulin surpassed 1980 as the youngest Hammerwerfer the 80 -meter mark and was then to find more than a decade in the world class, its greatest width of 84.48 he managed in 1990 in Lausanne. In total he scored in ten different years litters of over 80 meters. Igor Nikulin had a competition weight of 102 kilograms with a height of 1.91 meters. In addition to his sports career Nikulin had studied and then became a teacher in Saint Petersburg.