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It is doubtful whether Edward Sarul would be recalled anywhere other
than in his native Poland, if the IAAF had not introduced their
inaugural World Championships at Helsinki in 1983, providing Sarul with
his one big opportunity to enter the athletic history books. Sarul had
emerged on the Polish shot-putting scene in 1979, the year he had his
first win at the national championships. Sarul retained his national
title the following year, and went on to win it for a third time in
1982, the year in which he finished 11th at the European Championships.
Sarul made a big breakthrough in late July the following year, first
improving his personal best to 21.40m on 23 July, and then to 21.68m
eight days later, moving him to 12th on the all-time world list.
Despite this improvement, Sarul was not considered a serious threat at
the World Championships held the following week in Helsinki, where the
favourite was world record holder Udo Beyer (East Germany). In the
qualifying round, on 7 August, Sarul produced the second longest throw
of 20.82m, while in the final, held later the same day, he (see photo above)
took the lead after round one with a throw of 21.04m. Sarul could not
improve on this throw over the next three rounds, but more
significantly, neither could anyone else, including Beyer who was having
a particularly bad day. In round five, Sarul's mark was surpassed by
Ulf Timmermann (East Germany), who threw 21.16m to temporarily relegate
Sarul to second place, before Edward regained the lead on his last
throw, with a 21.39m effort to win the gold medal.
Sarul was denied the
opportunity of competing at the following year's Olympic Games in Los
Angeles due to the boycott by the eastern bloc countries, and after
that, he quickly faded from the international scene. (Ron Casey)
His final major competition came in 1986: he won the Polish indoor title and represented his country at the 1986 European Athletics Indoor Championships, finishing in fifth place.
His personal best of 21.68 m stood as the Polish national record for the event from 1983 until 2009. It was beaten at the DN Galan meeting in July 2009 by the reigning Olympic champion Tomasz Majewski, who extended the mark with a throw of 21.95 m.
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