How do you win the hammer throw?

• The hammer: a metal head, a steel wire and a handle. Men throw 7.26 kg and women 4 kg, counting all three parts.
• Where from: a circle 2.135 m across, inside a cage of netting.
• How: after swings and turns in the circle. The head may touch the ground on the way.
• The start: from a stationary position inside the circle.
• The failure: touching the top of the rim or the ground outside during the throw.
• The landing: the hammer head must first land inside the two white lines of the sector. Touching a line is a failure.
• Leaving: the athlete stays in the circle until the hammer has landed, then leaves from the back half.
• The measurement: from the nearest mark made on first landing back to the inside edge of the rim.
• Trials: with more than eight athletes, each has three trials and the eight with the best valid throws have three more.
• The result: each athlete is credited with the best of all their trials.
• Level on distance: the second-best throw decides, then the third-best.
• The clock: one minute for each trial.

Each attempt is a trial. A failed attempt is commonly called a foul. The thing thrown is the implement. The circle is the throwing circle of the glossary.

Every throw starts inside the same small circle and is measured back to its rim, so the result is what the athlete could do in that space and nothing else. The sector keeps the hammer landing where the judges are ready for it and nobody else is standing.