Career
Sedykh began athletics in 1967, his first trainer being Vladimir Ivanovich Volovik. He set the current world record of 86.74 m. at the 1986 European championships in Stuttgart. Only Sedykh & Sergey Litvinov have thrown over 86 meters in the history of the sport (Ivan Tsikhan"s 8673m throw in 2005 was annulled by the IAAF in April 2014 due to doping sanctions).
Unlike many hammer throwers Sedykh threw off three rotations rather than four - he felt three rotations were sufficient.
From 1972 he was coached by Anatoliy Bondarchuk, who is widely regarded as one of the best hammer coaches in the world. Sedykh often practiced with lighter and heavier hammers.
Currently, Sedykh holds an annual hammer camp in the United States of America. He is currently coaching Hammer throwers of the French team Nicolas Figére (80,88) for instance.
Yuriy"s technique centers on "pushing" the ball left and letting the hammer turn you, whereas Litvinov advocates uniformly accelerating the hammer.