Beyer Regains Shotput World Record at 74-3 1/2

East Germany’s Udo Beyer regained the shotput world record with a heave of 74 feet 3 1/2 inches Wednesday at an East Berlin track and field meet in which a West German television technician was seriously injured when he was hit in the head by a discus.

Wolfgang Rost, a soundman for the West German television network ZDF, suffered a fractured skull and was unconscious when taken to an East Berlin hospital, the West German sports news agency SID said. It said Rost’s life was in danger.

SID said Rost was hit during the women’s discus competition but did not identify the athlete who threw the discus.

The state-run East German news agency ADN did not mention the accident in its report on the meet.

Beyer bettered previous mark of 74-2 set by his countryman Ulf Timmermann last year.

Beyer, the 1976 Olympic champion, set the record on his third throw during a rain-drenched meet that served as the last warm-up for East German athletes before next week’s European Track and Field Championships at Stuttgart, West Germany.

It was the third world record for Beyer, a 31-year-old athlete from Potsdam.

“I didn’t think I could throw this far anymore. I am old man and I’ve always considered that the future belongs to Timmermann,” Beyer said.

His first two throws reached 72-11 3/4 and 74-1.

Rain forced organizers to cancel the high jump, but there were several other good performances despite the cool weather, particularly by the East German women who are expected to dominate the European Championships.

Heike Drechsler, long jump world record-holder, twice soared 23-8 3/4, which is 8 3/4 inches short of her world mark.

Cornelia Oschkenat clocked 12.66 seconds in the women’s 100-meter hurdles, held during pouring rain. She is considered the biggest challenger for the European title to Bulgaria’s Yordanka Donkova, who set a world record last Sunday in Cologne, West Germany, with a time of 12.29.

Marlies Gohr confirmed she had overcome an Achilles’ tendon injury by clocking 11.01 seconds in the 100-meter dash.

Beyer’s first world shotput mark of 73-0 came in Goeteborg, Sweden, on July 6, 1978. Beyer improved the mark on June 25, 1983, in Los Angeles with a heave of 72-10 3/4.

Timmermann, 22, who did not compete Wednesday, broke Beyer’s mark at a meet in East Berlin on Sept. 22, 1985.

MEN’S ALL-TIME SHOTPUT LIST

Mark Name Country Year 74-3 1/2 Udo Beyer East Germany 1986 74-2 1/2 Ulf Timmermann East Germany 1985 72-11 3/4 Sergei Smirnov USSR 1986 72-9 3/4 Brian Oldfield United States 1984 72-3 Dave Laut United States 1982 72-2 Alexander Barishnikov USSR 1976 72-0 Alessandro Andrei Italy 1985 71-10 John Brenner United States 1984 71-9 1/2 Remigius Machura Czechoslovakia 1985 71-9 1/2 Randy Barnes United States 1986 71-8 Terry Albritton United States 1976

NOTE: Brian Oldfield has a professional mark of 75-0 that is not recognized as a record.