Christiaan Harmse (born 31 May 1973) is a South African hammer thrower. He has broken the African record seven times, and holds the championship record for both the African Championships and All-Africa Games.
He has been a dominant presence in African hammer throwing since his first African Championships in Athletics in 1998 where he took gold with a championship record throw. He then went on to claim four consecutive African titles between 2002 and 2008, improving his own record along the way. His performances at the All-Africa Games have been equally dominant – he won his first title at the 1999 Games with a Games record and won twice more consecutively in 2003 and 2007, improving his record both times.
Although he won bronze medals at the 1998 and 2006 Commonwealth Games, he has had considerably less success on the world stage – despite four appearances at the World Championships in Athletics in his career, he has never qualified for the final of the event. Furthermore, he has never represented South Africa at the Olympics as he does not compete on Sundays, due to his religious views. Harmse is only the second Olympian to withdraw from the games for religious reasons.
His personal best throw is 80.63 metres, achieved in April 2005 in Durban. This is the former African record,Area Outdoor Records – Men – Africa – IAAF.org being beaten in 2014 by Mostafa Al-Gamel from Egypt.
On 22 April 2017, Harmse won his twenty-second consecutive national title at the South African Championships in Potchefstroom – a record unmatched by any athlete at the country's national championships. This has also been recorded as a World Record for most consecutive National Athletic Titles. He achieved this by besting Renaldo Frechou, whom himself gained the lead on his last throw with a distance of 70.30 meters. Tshepang Makhethe unfortunately threw a foul on his last. Chris stepped into the circle and threw a distance of 70.53 meters.
A 44-year-old Harmse extended his world record to 23 consecutive national titles with a throw of 70.62 m at the 2018 South African Championships, forcing Makhethe to settle for second place. His streak finally ended at the 2019 edition, where Harmse took the silver medal with 71.70 m as Makhethe had a personal best throw of 72.25 m to win gold.
International competitions Representing 1998African Championships Dakar, Senegal 1st72.11 m (CR)Commonwealth GamesKuala Lumpur, Malaysia 3rd72.83 mWorld Cup Johannesburg, South Africa7th68.34 mRepresenting Africa1999UniversiadePalma de Mallorca, Spain13th70.18 mWorld Championships Seville, Spain30th (q)71.57 mAll-Africa GamesJohannesburg, South Africa 1st74.75 m (CR)2001UniversiadeBeijing, China5th76.07 m2002African Championships Radès, Tunisia 1st76.07 m (CR)World Cup Madrid, Spain4th77.16 m2003All-Africa GamesAbuja, Nigeria 1st75.17 m (CR)Afro-Asian GamesHyderabad, India1st75.67 m2004African Championships Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo 1st75.90 m2005World Championships Helsinki, Finland13th (q)74.37 m2006Commonwealth GamesMelbourne, Australia 3rd73.81 mAfrican Championships Bambous, Mauritius 1st77.55 m (CR)World CupAthens, Greece7th73.94 m2007All-Africa Games Algiers, Algeria 1st76.73 m (CR)World Championships Osaka, Japan24th (q)71.07 m2008African ChampionshipsAddis Ababa, Ethiopia 1st77.72 m (CR)2009World ChampionshipsBerlin, Germany—NM2010Continental CupSplit, Croatia7th71.06 mCommonwealth GamesNew Delhi, India 1st73.15 mAfrican ChampionshipsNairobi, Kenya 2nd72.56 m2011All-Africa GamesMaputo, Mozambique 2nd74.66 m2012African ChampionshipsPorto-Novo, Benin 1st77.22 m2013World Championships Moscow, Russia24th (q)71.42 m2014African ChampionshipsMarrakesh, Morocco 2nd73.90 mContinental CupMarrakesh, Morocco7th71.71 m2015African GamesBrazzaville, Republic of the Congo2nd73.49 m2016African ChampionshipsDurban, South Africa 2nd67.67 m2018African ChampionshipsAsaba, Nigeria5th68.71 m
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