Weir Wouldn’t Be Denied In Throwing Events

It took a sometimes-frustrating three years, but Robert Weir finally beat fellow SMU teammate Richard Olsen in the hammer throw.

Weir thought he had it in the second year of their rivalry at the 1982 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Provo, Utah.

That’s when Weir led the competition until the last round at 73.24m (240-3). But Olsen, the defending champion, came back from a 7-foot deficit with a final effort of 73.30m (240-6) to snatch the victory. Weir’s only consolation from a second-straight NCAA runner-up finish to his teammate was leaving with the meet record, having tossed 73.34m (240-7) in the qualifying round.

“I knew from past experience that Richard will always be there. And he was,” Weir said.

That was the last time Weir lost to Olsen, who then owned a career 10-0 head-to-head edge in the hammer.

The pendulum swung in Weir’s favor in 1983, and the Englishman threw first notice with a world best in the weight throw of 23.64m (77-6¾) in early January before winning a second NCAA Indoor title in March. In April, he notched his first hammer win over Olsen and took Olsen’s collegiate record away at 74.06m (243-0).

At the 1983 NCAA DI Outdoor Championships in Houston, no one could touch Weir. After a first-round foul he took the lead at 72.60m (238-2) – a mark that would end up being long enough to win but would be his shortest effort of the day.

In Round 4, Weir broke his own meet record with a 73.86m (242-4) heave, then followed up by improving his CR to 74.42m (244-2) to win by more than 11 feet. Olsen ended up third behind Declan Hegarty of Boston University.

Interestingly, Weir’s CR wasn’t a PR. The previous fall he had won the Commonwealth Games with an “all-dates” collegiate best of 75.08m (246-4).

Weir’s postseason success also repeated in 1983 as he extended his world best in the weight throw to 24.14m (79-2½) in September, even though his specific training for the event had ended in March.