At the meeting and the prize giving ceremony Deputy Minister of Sport and former Olympic Champion in swimming dr.Szabó Tunde was present | Copyright 2025 FIM Europe | Terms of use - Privacy statement | World Athletics is deeply saddened to hear that Hungary’s three-time Olympic javelin medallist Gergely Kulcsar died on Wednesday (12) at the age of 86 Kulcsar was the first Hungarian man to throw beyond 80 metres Along with his Olympic silver in 1964 and his bronze medals in 1960 and 1968 Kulcsar was also Hungary’s flag bearer at the 1964 The family moved to Vac when Kulcsar was seven years old and it was there where he discovered sports His first major international appearance came at the 1958 European Championships in Stockholm Although he was ranked just 22nd in the world that year he came away from the Swedish capital with the bronze medal He replicated that finish two years later at the Olympic Games in Rome In a competition where all the big throws came in the first round Kulcsar’s opening effort of 78.57m was enough to clinch third place Kulcsar’s biggest international triumph was at the 1961 World University Games in Sofia where he beat two-time European champion Janusz Sidlo to take the gold medal Kulcsar added almost a metre to his own national record with 80.29m the first 80-metre throw by a Hungarian man But he was considered an outside bet for a medal at the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo as Norway’s Terje Pedersen broke the world record with 91.72m just before the Games while Sidlo and reigning European champion Janis Lusis were also in good form Sidlo and Lusis exchanged the lead in the first two rounds but Kulcsar then took pole position with a lifetime best of 82.32m in round four as Finland’s Pauli Nevala threw 82.66m just minutes later None of the top six improved in the last two rounds The 1966 European Championships were on home soil in Budapest and Kulcsar once again finished on the podium Kulcsar finished among the medals at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City Kulcsar took the lead in round four with a PB It remained the leading mark until the final round when Lusis (90.10m) and Finland’s Jorma Kinnunen (88.58m) surpassed it Although that was the last international medal of his career Kulcsar went on to finish fourth at the 1969 European Championships and narrowly missed the final at the 1972 Olympics before retiring at the end of that season Having worked as a physical education teacher and professor earlier in his career he became a full-time coach after retiring from competitive athletics and he guided Miklos Nemeth to Olympic gold in 1976 He was Hungary’s head throws coach until 1980 and then took on a similar role in Kuwait from 1981 to 1993 French racer Dimitri Berge sealed his place in the 2023 Speedway European Championship at an epic SEC Challenge at Hungarian track Nagyhalasz on Sunday afternoon winning his opening four races to seal his spot in the four-round continental series It also moves him a step closer to FIM Speedway Grand Prix qualification with the SEC champion guaranteed a spot in the 2024 Speedway GP series Last year’s FIM Torun Speedway GP wild card Kacper Woryna also booked his SEC spot with Czech shooting star Jan Kvech qualifying in third place – also on 10 Polish racer Grzegorz Zengota continued his fine start to 2023 by making the cut on 10 too The race for the fifth and final qualification place ended in a marathon four-heat run-off after former Speedway GP riders Antonio Lindback and Niels-Kristian Iversen finished on nine points Lindback won the opening race ahead of Iversen and Wozniak while Lyager beat Hansen in the second race meaning Lindback and Lyager were safely through to the all-important fourth and final heat The third race to eliminate the fifth rider saw Wozniak take the win ahead of Iversen in second and Hansen in third.  Hansen was out of the running and Wozniak and Iversen joined the final run-off who held his nerve to win European Championship qualification ahead of Lindback Today’s qualifiers are joined by 2022 SEC champion Leon Madsen plus his fellow top-five finishers Janusz Kolodziej The 2023 SEC field will be completed by permanent five wild card riders who will be selected by the SEC Commission soon with each round featuring one wild card for the night The SEC series gets underway at Polish club Czestochowa on June 17 before visiting German venue Gustrow on August 5 and Polish circuit Bydgoszcz on September 9 The champion will be crowned on Golden Helmet weekend in Czech city Pardubice on September 22 EKSTRALIGA | VACULIK LEADS GORZOW TO DERBY DELIGHT ZMARZLIK LANDS MAXIMUM POINTS IN LANDSHUT AFTER SPEEDWAY GP & SPRINT DOUBLE ZMARZLIK TAKES SPEEDWAY GP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP LEAD AFTER WINNING LANDSHUT SPRINT RACE Visit the Track Racing page Visit the SEC official Page Visit SEC official web site Individual Speedway Euro Championship: QR2 With all the Qualifying round held with success we finally got to know the line-up for SEC Challenge which will take place on May 14 in Nagyhalasz After six years the SEC was back in action in Mureck Timo Lahti scored 14 and won the fourth qualifying round the second place went to another representative of Finland and defeated much more experienced riders like Kai Huckenbeck The third place was taken by Dimitri Berge The last place which provides the promotion to SEC Challenge went to Michael Jepsen Jensen (12) Lots of surprising results happen in the meeting held in Debrecen Szymon Woźniak scored 13 and got a promotion from the first place Other three places which guaranteed start in Nagyhalasz were taken by Andzejs Lebedevs Jacob Thorssell and Niels Kristian Iversen Kacper Woryna and Frederik Jakobsen secured spots in SEC Challenge thanks to the great performances made in qualifying round in Daugavpils It was a fantastic evening for the silver medallist of SEC 2015 and lost only one point in the last heat of the meeting in which he crossed the finish line behind Lyager