Christiaan Harmse (born 31 May 1973) is a South African

hammer throw The hammer throw (HT for short) is one of the four throwing events in regular outdoor track-and-field competitions, along with the discus throw, shot put and Javelin throw, javelin. The hammer used in this sport is not like any of the tools a ...

er. He has broken the African record seven times, and holds the championship record for both the

African Championships An African Championship is a top level international sports competition between Africa, African athletes or sports teams representing their respective countries or professional sports club, sports clubs. List of championships ;Athletics * African ...

and

All-Africa Games The African Games, formally known as the All-Africa Games or the Pan African Games, are a continental multi-sport event held every four years, organized by the African Union with the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa and the ...

. He has been a dominant presence in African hammer throwing since his first

African Championships in Athletics The African Championships in Athletics is a continental athletics event organized by the Confederation of African Athletics (CAA), the continental association for the sport in Africa. Since its inaugural edition in 1979 it was at first organis ...

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

where he took gold with a championship record throw. He then went on to claim four consecutive African titles between 2002 and 2008, improving his own record along the way. His performances at the

have been equally dominant – he won his first title at the 1999 Games with a Games record and won twice more consecutively in

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

and

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

, improving his record both times. Although he won bronze medals at the

and

2006 Commonwealth Games The 2006 Commonwealth Games, officially the XVIII Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Melbourne 2006, were an International sport, international multi-sport event for members of the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth held in Melbourne ...

, he has had considerably less success on the world stage – despite four appearances at the

World Championships in Athletics The World Athletics Championships, known as the IAAF World Championships in Athletics until 2019, are a biennial athletics competition organized by World Athletics, formerly International Association of Athletics Federations. Alongside Olympic ...

in his career, he has never qualified for the final of the event. Furthermore, he has never represented

South Africa at the Olympics South Africa first participated at the Olympic Games in 1904, and sent athletes to compete in every Summer Olympic Games until 1960. After the passage of United Nations General Assembly Resolution 1761 in 1962 in response to South Africa's polic ...

as he does not compete on Sundays, due to his religious views. Harmse is only the second Olympian to withdraw from the games for religious reasons. His personal best throw is 80.63 metres, achieved in April 2005 in

Durban Durban ( ; , from meaning "bay, lagoon") is the third-most populous city in South Africa, after Johannesburg and Cape Town, and the largest city in the Provinces of South Africa, province of KwaZulu-Natal. Situated on the east coast of South ...

. This is the former African record, being beaten in 2014 by

Mostafa Al-Gamel Mostafa Mohamed Hesham El Gamel (born 1 October 1988 in Giza) is an Egyptian athlete. He competed for Egypt in hammer throw at the 2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as ...

from Egypt. On 22 April 2017, Harmse won his twenty-second consecutive national title at the

South African Championships The South African Open – formerly known as the South African Championships, and for sponsorship reasons the Altech NCR South African Open and the Panasonic South African Open – is a defunct Grand Prix Tennis Tour, World Championship Se ...

Potchefstroom Potchefstroom ( ; ), colloquially known as Potch, is an college town, academic city in the North West (South African province), North West Province of South Africa. It hosts the Potchefstroom Campus of the North-West University. Potchefstro ...

– a record unmatched by any athlete at the country's national championships. This has also been recorded as a World Record for most consecutive National Athletic Titles. He achieved this by besting Renaldo Frechou, whom himself gained the lead on his last throw with a distance of 70.30 meters.

Tshepang Makhethe Tshepang Makhethe (born 19 February 1996) is a South African hammer thrower. Makhethe finished tenth at the 2014 World Junior Championships. He won the silver medal at the 2015 African Junior Championships followed by the bronze medal at the ...

unfortunately threw a foul on his last. Chris stepped into the circle and threw a distance of 70.53 meters. A 44-year-old Harmse extended his world record to 23 consecutive national titles with a throw of 70.62 m at the 2018 South African Championships, forcing Makhethe to settle for second place. His streak finally ended at the 2019 edition, where Harmse took the silver medal with 71.70 m as Makhethe had a personal best throw of 72.25 m to win gold.

International competitions

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Harmse, Chris 1973 births Living people South African male hammer throwers Commonwealth Games gold medallists for South Africa Commonwealth Games athletes for South Africa Commonwealth Games bronze medallists for South Africa Athletes (track and field) at the 1998 Commonwealth Games Athletes (track and field) at the 2006 Commonwealth Games Athletes (track and field) at the 2010 Commonwealth Games Athletes (track and field) at the 2015 African Games World Athletics Championships athletes for South Africa African Games gold medalists for South Africa African Games gold medalists in athletics (track and field) South African Athletics Championships winners African Championships in Athletics winners Medallists at the 1998 Commonwealth Games Medallists at the 2010 Commonwealth Games 21st-century South African sportsmen Place of birth missing (living people) Commonwealth Games gold medallists in athletics Commonwealth Games bronze medallists in athletics