1978 European Athletics Championships
Track events
100 m	men	women
200 m	men	women
400 m	men	women
800 m	men	women
1500 m	men	women
3000 m		women
5000 m	men
10,000 m	men
100 m hurdles		women
110 m hurdles	men
400 m hurdles	men	women
3000 m steeplechase	men
4 × 100 m relay	men	women
4 × 400 m relay	men	women
Road events
Marathon	men
20 km walk	men
50 km walk	men
Field events
Long jump	men	women
Triple jump	men
High jump	men	women
Pole vault	men
Shot put	men	women
Discus throw	men	women
Hammer throw	men
Javelin throw	men	women
Combined events
Pentathlon		women
Decathlon	men
v t e

The men's javelin throw at the 1978 European Athletics Championships was held in Prague, then Czechoslovakia, at Stadion Evžena Rošického on 29 and 30 August 1978.^[1]

Gold	Michael Wessing  West Germany
Silver	Nikolay Grebnyev  Soviet Union
Bronze	Wolfgang Hanisch  East Germany

30 August

Rank	Name	Nationality	Result	Notes
	Michael Wessing	West Germany	89.12
	Nikolay Grebnyev	Soviet Union	87.82
	Wolfgang Hanisch	East Germany	87.66
4	Detlef Michel	East Germany	85.46
5	Helmut Schreiber	West Germany	83.58
6	Miklós Németh	Hungary	83.58
7	Piotr Bielczyk	Poland	81.80
8	Terje Thorslund	Norway	80.42
9	Ferenc Paragi	Hungary	79.08
10	Sándor Boros	Hungary	78.78
11	Pentti Sinersaari	Finland	77.10
12	Seppo Hovinen	Finland	73.08
13	Antero Puranen	Finland	72.74
	Vasiliy Yershov	Soviet Union	DQ	Doping†

^†: Vasiliy Yershov ranked initially 5th (85.06m), but was disqualified for infringement of IAAF doping rules.^[2]

29 August

Rank	Name	Nationality	Result	Notes
1	Ferenc Paragi	Hungary	86.04	Q
2	Nikolay Grebnyev	Soviet Union	85.18	Q
3	Helmut Schreiber	West Germany	85.16	Q
4	Wolfgang Hanisch	East Germany	84.50	Q
5	Antero Puranen	Finland	84.42	Q
6	Miklós Németh	Hungary	83.48	Q
7	Sándor Boros	Hungary	83.22	Q
8	Pentti Sinersaari	Finland	82.46	Q
9	Michael Wessing	West Germany	81.84	Q
10	Seppo Hovinen	Finland	80.94	Q
11	Detlef Michel	East Germany	80.48	Q
12	Terje Thorslund	Norway	80.22	Q
13	Piotr Bielczyk	Poland	80.06	Q
14	Kenth Eldebrink	Sweden	78.60
15	Bjørn Grimnes	Norway	78.58
16	Josef Hanák	Czechoslovakia	78.56
17	Raimo Pihl	Sweden	78.42
18	Per-Eric Smiding	Sweden	76.36
19	Peter Yates	Great Britain	75.82
20	Tomáš Babiak	Czechoslovakia	75.20
21	Tudorel Pirvu	Romania	75.14
22	Vincenzo Marchetti	Italy	71.80
	Vasiliy Yershov	Soviet Union	DQ	Q†

^†: Vasiliy Yershov initially reached the final, but was disqualified later for infringement of IAAF doping rules.^[2]

According to an unofficial count, 23 athletes from 12 countries participated in the event.