The crowd were pleased to see Schult – the 1987 Champion – take the lead after the first round, and delighted when defending champion Riedel went ahead in the second with an excellent 67.22. Schult also improved with his second throw and Germany were to hold the first two positions for most of the competition.
With his final throw, Shevchenko produced 66.90 to split the Germans. In fourth place was Olympic Champion Ubartas, but his name was removed from the order after he failed a doping test.
The 46,200 spectators clapped and cheered when each of the Germans went into the ring, but during the contest Riedel and Schult took the unusual step of issuing a statement to ask the crowd to pleasebe quiet at these times. A small section of the crowd appeared to ignore this request, but they simply had not seen the statement as the main scoreboard was not visible from their seats!