The pre-event predictions foretold a US victory, but no one could have foreseen that a fifth-round monster throw from USA&rsquo;s Laulauga Tausaga would change the trajectory of the women&rsquo;s discus final on day four of the World Athletics Championships Budapest 23.
It was expected to be a two-way clash between the Olympic champion Valarie Allman of the United States and the world champion Feng Bin of China, and it was &ndash; at least in the first four rounds.
Heading to Budapest, Allman was the only woman to have thrown over the 70-metre mark this year, with her season's best of 70.25m set in April in San Diego. That displayed the sort of form that saw her break the area record last year, with 71.46m.&nbsp; &nbsp;
She had also consistently surpassed 65 metres throughout this season, with eight victories out of 10, including the US Trials which she won with 67.66m. She topped the qualifying round with 67.14m, showing her readiness to upgrade the bronze medal she won last year in Oregon behind Feng, who struck gold with a lifetime best of 69.12m, while the iconic Sandra Perkovic took silver.
The Chinese athlete came with six wins from seven competitions, and finished just behind Allman in the qualifiers, following in second with 65.68m.
Tausaga, in comparison, had recorded mixed results in the course of a long season which saw her make 12 appearances but only secure two victories, the farthest being the 65.46m lifetime best that she set at the US Trials to finish second to Allman. As a result, she wasn&rsquo;t considered a top contender in Budapest.
Allman&rsquo;s first throw landed at 68.57m, propelling her to the top of the standings, and when Feng responded, it was almost one and a half metres shy, with the discus landing at 66.97m.
The Tokyo Olympic medallist extended her lead by 22cm in round three, and became the first woman in the field to throw over 69 metres with her fourth-round effort, which hit the ground at 69.23m, putting the gold medal within her grasp.
The Asian champion was consistent in her pursuit, improving on her season's best with her last three throws, going from 67.18m, to 67.41m, and then 68.20m.
With two fouls in her first and fourth attempts, and then a second-round throw of 52.28m, Tausaga was at the bottom of the pile. How was she to know that she was at the cusp of her breakthrough?
Taking to the ring, the 25-year-old dug deep to produce the farthest throw of her life that immediately shot her to the top, recording a lifetime best of 69.49m, and moving past her teammate by 26cm.
The 2019 NCAA champion was ecstatic, running across the track to celebrate her new achievement with her team.
Watching the gold slip from her grasp, Allman still had her last throw to make. She tried to give it everything but could only produce a final effort of 68.61m to settle for silver, while the bronze medal went to Feng.&nbsp;
Irrespective of the order of medals, history was made for the US. With her bronze from Oregon, Allman became the first US athlete to claim a world medal in the women&rsquo;s discus, and with her feat in Budapest, Tausaga emerged as the first US world champion in the event, inspiring a 1-2 for the North American nation and adding a new page in the history books.
"I don't know if I have a fairy godmother or something, or my ancestors had some say in it, but I was able to do something tonight that I didn't think was possible yet," said Tausaga. "I was confident if I was on my A game I could sneak through into a medal place and not be 12th like I was in the last two world championships.
"I'm just so happy. It's unbelievable to go from 12th to first. No one was expecting me and I just showed up."
Jorinde van Klinken almost broke through the top three with a last-gap effort in the fifth round, but had to be content to leave Budapest with a season's best of 67.20m for fourth.
Two-time world champion and Olympic gold medallist Perkovic was fifth with 66.57m.
Yemi Olus-Galadima&nbsp;for World Athletics
&nbsp;
<table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 75%; border-color: #ffffff; border-style: solid;" border="1" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="3">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="background-color: #fd5249; text-align: center;" colspan="3">WOMEN'S DISCUS MEDALLISTS</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 10%; background-color: #e9c968; text-align: center;">🥇</td>
<td style="width: 60%; background-color: #e9c968;">Laulauga Tausaga-Collins 🇺🇸 USA</td>
<td style="width: 30%; background-color: #e9c968;">69.49m PB</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 10%; background-color: #ced4d9; text-align: center;">🥈</td>
<td style="width: 60%; background-color: #ced4d9;">Valarie Allman 🇺🇸 USA</td>
<td style="width: 30%; background-color: #ced4d9;">69.23m</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 10%; background-color: #bd895e; text-align: center;">🥉</td>
<td style="width: 60%; background-color: #bd895e;">Bin Feng 🇨🇳 CHN</td>
<td style="width: 30%; background-color: #bd895e;">68.20m</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="background-color: #34495e; text-align: left;" colspan="3">&nbsp;&nbsp;<a style="color: #ffffff;" href="https://worldathletics.org/en/competitions/world-athletics-championships/budapest23/results/women/discus-throw/final/result" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Full results</a></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
For highlights, exclusive behind-the-scenes content and the latest results and statistics during the World Championships, join <a href="https://worldathletics.org/inside-track" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Inside Track</a> today for free.

World Athletics Championships, Budapest 2023

The pre-event predictions foretold a US victory, but no one could have foreseen that a fifth-round monster throw from USA’s Laulauga Tausaga-Collins would change the trajectory of the women’s discus final

Tausaga-Collins flips the script to lead US discus 1-2 in Budapest

Leading the highest quality men&rsquo;s discus major championships podium in history, Daniel Stahl regained the crown he first claimed in Doha four years ago, breaking the championship record in the final round to do so.
Never before had two athletes surpassed 70 metres in the same competition on the global stage. Not only did Stahl and Kristjan Ceh both break that barrier at the World Athletics Championships Budapest 23 on Monday, but they did it in the final round to cap a thrilling contest at the National Athletics Centre.
Stahl led the competition heading into the final round courtesy of a 69.37m fourth attempt. But in a determined defence of the title he won in Oregon last year, Slovenia&rsquo;s Ceh sent his discus soaring out to 70.02m, with only one throw of the competition remaining.
Stahl made it count. With a stunning response, the Swedish star shot to the top, his winning mark of 71.46m adding 33cm to the championship record that Ceh set last year.
In that competition in Oregon, Mykolas Alekna became the youngest ever world discus medallist. Now he is a two-time medallist, the Lithuanian 20-year-old&rsquo;s fourth-round 68.85m bagging him a bronze to go with the silver he secured 13 months ago.
Australia&rsquo;s Matt Denny also made history as he set a national record of 68.24m to finish fourth &ndash; the best ever result for that position at a major championships.
"This was my best performance ever," said Stahl, who achieved his national record of 71.86m in 2019 and has only thrown farther than he did in Budapest on one other occasion. "I had so much focus; I would say 1000% on the last throw after I saw Kristjan throw 70.02m."
Ceh had taken the early lead with his opening 68.31m and he improved to 69.27m with his next throw. A 67.08m second attempt by Alekna moved him into second place and 66.58m by Stahl placed him third.
Jamaica&rsquo;s Fedrick Dacres then put himself into medal contention in the third round, throwing 66.72m, but that was short lived as Denny and Alekna both improved with their fourth attempts &ndash; marks that would end up being their best of the contest. After Denny threw his 68.24m Australian record, Alekna pushed him off the podium with 68.85m.
With the leading quintet unable to improve in the fifth round, they were left to deliver something special in the sixth. As the medallists were confirmed, there was still the gold to fight for. Alekna&rsquo;s last attempt was 68.07m, matching his mark from the previous round. It was down to Ceh and Stahl to fight for the title.
After 31 clashes, Stahl now leads 17-14 against Ceh; that career tally including an Olympic win for Stahl in Tokyo, as well as his two world title victories.
The 66.72m achieved by Dacres remained enough to place him fifth, one spot above Alekna&rsquo;s compatriot Andrius Gudzius, the 2017 world champion, who threw 66.16m.
"The competition was so strong," added Stahl. "We have five guys over 70 metres and eight with 68 metres, so you could never have predicted it. It was an amazing final and I'm really proud of the record."
Satisfied with silver, Ceh said: "My expectations were really high. I knew I was physically prepared, even though one month before the World Championships I was struggling with technique. In the end, everything came together and I knew that I had 70 metres in me, which I showed on the last throw.
"I knew I wouldn't win because Daniel is performing really well under pressure."
Jess Whittington for World Athletics
&nbsp;
<table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 75%; border-color: #ffffff; border-style: solid;" border="1" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="3">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="background-color: #fd5249; text-align: center;" colspan="3">MEN'S DISCUS MEDALLISTS</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 10%; background-color: #e9c968; text-align: center;">🥇</td>
<td style="width: 60%; background-color: #e9c968;">Daniel Stahl 🇸🇪 SWE</td>
<td style="width: 30%; background-color: #e9c968;">71.46m CR</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 10%; background-color: #ced4d9; text-align: center;">🥈</td>
<td style="width: 60%; background-color: #ced4d9;">Kristjan Ceh 🇸🇮 SLO</td>
<td style="width: 30%; background-color: #ced4d9;">70.02m</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 10%; background-color: #bd895e; text-align: center;">🥉</td>
<td style="width: 60%; background-color: #bd895e;">Mykolas Alekna 🇱🇹 LTU</td>
<td style="width: 30%; background-color: #bd895e;">68.85m</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="background-color: #34495e; text-align: left;" colspan="3">&nbsp;&nbsp;<a style="color: #ffffff;" href="https://worldathletics.org/en/competitions/world-athletics-championships/budapest23/results/men/discus-throw/final/result" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Full results</a></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
For highlights, exclusive behind-the-scenes content and the latest results and statistics during the World Championships, join <a href="https://worldathletics.org/inside-track" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Inside Track</a> today for free.

Leading the highest quality men’s discus major championships podium in history, Daniel Stahl regained the discus crown he first claimed in Doha four years ago, breaking the championship record in the final round to do so

Stahl regains world discus title with last-gasp record in Budapest

Following in the footsteps of a legendary parent into the same sport is never easy. The extra burden of expectation comes with the territory for those who inherit gold medal-winning genes.&nbsp;
However, this unique pressure doesn&rsquo;t seem to have effected Mykolas&nbsp;Alekna, son of two-time Olympic and two-time world champion discus thrower Virgilijus&nbsp;Alekna.&nbsp;
Alekna&nbsp;senior won his Olympic titles in Sydney in 2000 and Athens in 2004, and clinched gold at the World Athletics Championships in Paris in 2003 and Helsinki in 2005. With a monster personal best of 73.88m from 2000, he is still second on the all-time list, just 20cm behind Jurgen Schult&rsquo;s world record from 1986. He remains one of Lithuania&rsquo;s sporting greats.&nbsp;
They are quite some boots to fill.&nbsp;
But&nbsp;Alekna&nbsp;junior has already emulated one of his father&rsquo;s achievements, by winning the European Championships in Munich last year when aged only 19. It meant he was the youngest ever European champion in the discus, and it followed his silver at the World Athletics Championships in Oregon, where he was also the youngest ever discus medallist.&nbsp;&nbsp;
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/64e0dedb36263f56ac856aca.jpg" alt="Mykolas Alekna with his parents Virgilijus Alekna and Kristina Sablovskyte" />
Mykolas Alekna with his parents Virgilijus Alekna and Kristina Sablovskyte (&copy; Getty Images)
</div>
Earlier this year, aged 20, he set another first. Competing at a meeting in Berkley, California, he became the youngest athlete ever to throw the men&rsquo;s discus over 70 metres, when he threw 71.00m to go 18th&nbsp;on the all-time list.&nbsp;&nbsp;
In an event in which athletes traditionally peak later,&nbsp;Mykolas&nbsp;has quickly found his feet. And rather than feeling the strain of expectation, his father&rsquo;s achievements are a source of inspiration.&nbsp;&nbsp;
&ldquo;My father is my big idol,&rdquo; says the younger&nbsp;Alekna. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a legendary thrower, I want to be like him one day. Maybe even be better than him? We will see what happens.&rdquo;&nbsp;
Mykolas also has an older brother, Martynas, who is also a mighty talent in the discus circle having set a new personal best of 67.23m in Jelgava, Latvia, in June.&nbsp;
From the outside, it might look like they were channelled towards the discus as children. But Mykolas had not picked up a discus until deep into his teenage years.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
&ldquo;I was 16 years old,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Before that I used to do football, I used to do high jump. I was a striker. I was pretty good when I was young. But I grew a lot, my feet got bigger. I was slower and that&rsquo;s when I transitioned to discus. I was pretty late, I suppose. My parents only wanted me to do sports. It didn&rsquo;t matter what sports, just to do something.&rdquo;&nbsp;
By only his second year, he was representing Lithuania at the European Youth Olympics Festival, placing ninth in Baku and winning gold at the Baltic Championships in his home city, Vilnius. In 2021, just short of his 19th birthday, he became both world U20 and European U20 champion, announcing a new Alekna to a global audience.&nbsp;
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/612295bca4380c351612abcd.jpg" alt="Mykolas Alekna wins the world U20 discus title in Nairobi" />
Mykolas Alekna wins the world U20 discus title in Nairobi (&copy; Dan Vernon)
</div>
It secured him a scholarship to California State University, and the upwards trajectory continued in 2022 as he muscled his way on to senior podiums at the World and European Championships, respectively.&nbsp;&nbsp;
But&nbsp;Mykolas&nbsp;does not take success for granted. With Olympic champion Daniel Stahl of Sweden, world champion Kristjan Ceh of Slovenia, improving Samoan Alex Rose and Olympic, world and European bronze medallist Lukas Weisshaidinger all performing at or near to their peak, the event is one of the hardest fought in global track and field.&nbsp;
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s very strong this year,&rdquo; he acknowledges. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s the strongest it has ever been, (with) five guys over 70 metres. It&rsquo;s a very good competition, I am glad I can just be in the field with all the other guys. It&rsquo;s my second year with the big guys, so I&rsquo;m a new guy. I just say &lsquo;hi&rsquo;. We are not friends or anything, but we are good colleagues.&rdquo;&nbsp;
In the lead up to the World Athletics Championships Budapest 23, he was pleased to bank another international title, winning at the European U23 Championships in Espoo, Finland.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
&ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s a very good experience. It&rsquo;s very valuable for me. It&rsquo;ll help me to do better in Budapest. I just need to get used to the competition, to compete more and gain experience. I do pretty well in practice, and I just have to do better in the competition,&rdquo; he says, in what could be an ominous threat to his rivals, that there is still plenty more to come from the 20-year-old.&nbsp;
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/644daefd633f3df3dfd77ac7.jpg" alt="Mykolas Alekna" />
Mykolas Alekna in Oregon (&copy; AFP / Getty Images)
</div>
Away from competition,&nbsp;Mykolas&nbsp;enjoys retreating to the lakes outside of Vilnius. &ldquo;I go fishing in Lithuania,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;In the lakes, not in the sea. I fish for lake fish, pikes and things like that. It helps me to relax after training. I think about discus all the time. But when I start fishing, I forget about everything.&rdquo;&nbsp;
For&nbsp;Mykolas&nbsp;though, there is a parallel between his fishing abilities and his prodigious talents in the discus circle. He has already been able to reel in the big prizes and the Lithuanian is not one to let the big ones get away.
Chris Broadbent for World Athletics

Following in the footsteps of a legendary parent into the same sport is never easy, but this unique pressure doesn’t seem to have effected Mykolas Alekna

Maintaining the family tradition, Alekna closes in on big catch

<h2>Women's discus</h2>
<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/competitions/world-athletics-championships/budapest23/timetable/bydiscipline/women/discus-throw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Timetable</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/world-rankings/discus-throw/women" target="_blank" rel="noopener">world rankings</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/records/toplists/throws/discus-throw/outdoor/women/senior/2023" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2023 world list</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/records/all-time-toplists/throws/discus-throw/outdoor/women/senior" target="_blank" rel="noopener">world all-time list</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/disciplines/throws/discus-throw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">how it works</a>
At the Tokyo Olympic Games, the hopes held by Sandra Perkovic of Croatia of winning a third consecutive title were ended by a breakthrough victory by Valarie Allman of the United States, who claimed gold with 68.98m.
Perkovic ended up in that most painful position &ndash; fourth &ndash; with a best of 65.01m.
There was a further blow for the hugely competitive Croatian in April 2022 as Allman threw a massive personal best of 71.46m, five centimetres farther than Perkovic&rsquo;s best and enough to bump her out of the world all-time top 15.
But later that year the 32-year-old Croatian offered startling evidence that she was still a serious contender at the top level as she produced a season&rsquo;s best of 68.45m to beat her US rival at the World Championships in Oregon.
Gold, however, went to China&rsquo;s Feng Bin, who produced a personal best of 69.12m to upset the form book. Allman took bronze with 68.30m, becoming the first US woman to win a world medal in the event.
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/62d8b6d4db65cb1314141b43.jpg" alt="Feng Bin in the discus at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22" />
Feng Bin in the discus at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 (&copy; Getty Images)
</div>
This year, however, the 28-year-old from Delaware produced another stellar effort at the same Triton Stadium in San Diego where she had thrown her personal best, recording 70.25m, which puts her top of this year&rsquo;s world list.
Feng, however, will defend her title from a place of strength, having thrown a best of 66.81m this year. She has won five of her six competitions this season, throwing beyond 66 metres in four of those. She also won the Asian title last month in her last competition before heading to Budapest.
European bronze medallist Jorinde van Klinken has a best this year of 67.05m, set in the throws-friendly venue of La Jolla, but she backed it up with a 66.77m victory at the Diamond League meeting in Oslo.
Olympic silver medallist Kristin Pudenz was disappointed to place 11th in Oregon last year, but she rebounded to take European silver on home soil with a PB of 67.87m. Her best throw this season, 66.84m, came when winning at the European Team Championships.
She is one of three Germans to have thrown beyond 66 metres this year; teammates Shanice Craft and Claudine Vita will be aiming to at least feature in the final.
Melina Robert-Michon will be competing at her 10th World Championships. The 44-year-old from France has reached eight World Championships finals to date, taking silver in 2013 and bronze in 2017. Her best this year is 65.49m, the sixth-best throw of her career.
Chioma Onyekwere will be aiming to make her first World Championships final, having missed out in 2019 and 2022. Earlier this year the Commonwealth and two-time African champion set a continental record of 64.96m.
&nbsp;
<h2>Men's discus</h2>
<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/competitions/world-athletics-championships/budapest23/timetable/bydiscipline/men/discus-throw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Timetable</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/world-rankings/discus-throw/men" target="_blank" rel="noopener">world rankings</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/records/toplists/throws/discus-throw/outdoor/men/senior/2023" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2023 world list</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/records/all-time-toplists/throws/discus-throw/outdoor/men/senior" target="_blank" rel="noopener">world all-time list</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/disciplines/throws/discus-throw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">how it works</a>
Sweden&rsquo;s Daniel Stahl, world and then European silver medallist in 2017 and 2018 respectively, broke through for world gold in Doha in 2019 and followed up by winning the Olympic title in Tokyo two years later.
But another talent was rising; Slovenia&rsquo;s Kristjan Ceh, who had finished fifth in the Tokyo Olympic final, earned the world title in Oregon last year with a championship record of 71.13m.
Another talent was also rising in the form of Lithuania&rsquo;s 19-year-old Mykolas Alekna, son of the double Olympic champion Virgilijus. He took silver in Oregon with 69.27m, becoming the youngest world discus medallist.
And a month later, even more extraordinarily, he beat Ceh and all three Olympic medallists &ndash; Stahl, his Swedish teammate Simon Pettersson and Lukas Weisshaidinger &ndash; to take gold at the European Championships in Munich with a championship record of 69.78m.
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/64dcde81076391b172d7c58b.jpg" alt="Daniel Stahl at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22" />
Daniel Stahl at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 (&copy; Getty Images)
</div>
This year the rivalry has been renewed in earnest.
In California in April, Alekna became the youngest discus thrower in history to throw beyond 70 metres, moving up to 18th on the world all-time list with 71.00m, a European U23 record and an early leader on the 2023 world list.
Only another 3.88m to match his dad&rsquo;s best, set in 2000, which puts him second on the world all-time list behind the world record of 74.08m set in 1986 by East Germany&rsquo;s Jurgen Schult.
Ceh has taken the initiative in the Diamond League, winning in Doha &ndash; with a meeting record of 70.89m &ndash; Rabat and Stockholm.
In June in the Estonian town of Johvi, Ceh and Stahl put together a monumental contest which ended with the Slovenian winning in a personal best of 71.86m, the best seen in 2023, which saw him join Stahl and Russia&rsquo;s Yuri Dumchev at joint fourth place on the world all-time list.
But Stahl will have taken huge encouragement in Estonia from finishing second with 71.45m, which leaves him second on this year&rsquo;s world list.
And at the London Diamond League meeting in July, the Olympic champion served notice that he is not to be underestimated in Budapest as he won with 67.03m, with Matt Denny of Australia finishing second with 66.77m and Ceh third with 66.02m.
Meanwhile Olympic bronze medallist Weisshaidinger is fourth on the 2023 list with 70.68m, with Alex Rose of Samoa next on 70.39m. It&rsquo;s the first season in 40 years in which five or more men have thrown beyond 70 metres in the discus.
Lithuania&rsquo;s 2017 world champion and 2018 European champion Andrius Gudzius has thrown 67.66m this year and should not be underestimated.
Nor indeed should another Alekna, Mykolas&rsquo;s 22-year-old brother Martynas, who is 12th on the world list with 67.23m, one place above Olympic fourth-place finisher Denny (66.84m).
Like Lithuania, Jamaica also boasts three strong challengers: Roje Stona, who threw 68.84m in May, 2018 Commonwealth champion and 2019 world silver medallist Fedrick Dacres, and national champion Traves Smikle.
Mike Rowbottom&nbsp;for World Athletics

Expected highlights in the women's and men's discus

WCH Budapest 23 preview: discus

By day, he&rsquo;s a sales engineer and a father to a ninth-month-old son. By night, he&rsquo;s one of the world&rsquo;s best discus throwers. For Alex Rose, that&rsquo;s just the way it has to be.
&ldquo;Once my son is put to bed, I try to knock out a few hours (of training),&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t been sleeping the greatest, but it&rsquo;s incredibly motivating. When I&rsquo;m spending time on discus, it&rsquo;s time I&rsquo;m not with him so I have to utilise it and be efficient.&rdquo;
Juggling a full-time job with fatherhood and a world-class throwing career isn&rsquo;t easy, but it is worth it. Maybe not in a financial sense, given Rose is not among his event&rsquo;s few high earners, but more in terms of personal fulfilment.
&ldquo;If I was doing some other events and ranked as highly as I am, I might not have to be working right now, but there&rsquo;s something to be said about competition purely for competition&rsquo;s sake,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I train by myself with a video camera, not because someone&rsquo;s paying me or I have sponsorships or because there&rsquo;ll be a million people who&rsquo;ll know my name. I&rsquo;m doing it because I love it, and I&rsquo;m getting better at it.&rdquo;
That&rsquo;s certainly true. The 31-year-old Samoan smashed the Oceanian discus record in April, throwing 70.39m in Oklahoma, USA, which puts him fifth on the 2023 top lists as the countdown continues to the World Athletics Championships Budapest 23.
&ldquo;It really was a dream, a crazy moment I&rsquo;ll never forget,&rdquo; he says. The conditions that day were the kind a discus thrower dreams of. &ldquo;It was the best wind I&rsquo;ve ever thrown in in my life, everything lined up and I felt fantastic.&rdquo;
The wind blew diagonally towards him from the right sector line, a breeze that&rsquo;s ideal for a right-handed thrower, and having thrown 69.41m the previous day, his jump to 70.39m meant he added almost three metres to his lifetime best in a single weekend.
&ldquo;It still doesn&rsquo;t feel real that I actually threw 70 metres,&rdquo; he says, though now the trick is to get close to it again. &ldquo;It&rsquo;d be fantastic to put more throws in the 67-to-68-metre range. If I can capture some of that energy in a stadium, I can compete for a medal.&rdquo;
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/64ce273bf437f90e8f3f22a8.jpg" alt="Samoan discus thrower Alex Rose at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22" />
Samoan discus thrower Alex Rose at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 (&copy; Getty Images)
</div>
Rose was born and raised in the US &ndash; in West Branch, Michigan &ndash; and these days he lives in Grand Rapids with his wife, Sam, and baby son Aleki (the Samoan for Alex). His father, Ross, grew up in Samoa, and travelled to the United States with a church band at the age of 20 before deciding to make it his new home. &ldquo;He wound up in northern Michigan, a very cold state,&rdquo; laughs Rose. &ldquo;The whole first winter, he wore two winter jackets every day; he&rsquo;d never seen snow.&rdquo;
In high school, American football and basketball were Rose&rsquo;s main sports, but in his junior year his chemistry teacher &ndash; who was the school&rsquo;s track and field coach &ndash; approached him and put a disc on the table. &ldquo;He said, &lsquo;hold this, and spread your arms out&rsquo;,&rdquo; recalls Rose. &ldquo;He saw I had a very long wingspan and he said, &lsquo;you&rsquo;re going to try out for the track team&rsquo;.&rdquo;
Rose stands 1.88m (6ft 2in), but his wingspan is 2.08m (6ft 10in). His chemistry teacher clearly knew enough about physics to understand the advantage such biology conferred, and Rose took to the shot put and discus well once he grasped the technique. When he enrolled at Central Michigan University, he chose to jettison American football and basketball and focus on throwing. &ldquo;Track was more my style, it&rsquo;s an individual event, all about you,&rdquo; he says.
But that can also make it a lonely path, especially in the post-collegiate years.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve almost quit numerous times, it&rsquo;s very tough to keep going,&rdquo; admits Rose. &ldquo;You think, &lsquo;I&rsquo;m going to be a husband, a father,&rsquo; but then you find ways to keep going. It&rsquo;s something I love and it&rsquo;s something I love more and more each year, such an intrinsic part of who I am.&rdquo;
In 2015, Rose was training by himself, with little guidance or support, when he came across a friend on Facebook selling protein supplements. Dane Miller was a well-regarded strength coach who ran the Garage Strength gym in Reading, Pennsylvania, and Rose fired him a message, hoping to get some sponsorship in the form of free protein.
&ldquo;He said, &lsquo;yes, but you have to let me coach you&rsquo;,&rdquo; recalls Rose, who felt like he had little to lose. In their early months working together, Rose resisted Miller&rsquo;s input on technique, but eventually he got on board, and the results vindicated Miller&rsquo;s methods.
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/64ce29ac1b400593744ba78d.jpg" alt="Alex Rose at the Olympic Games in Tokyo" />
Alex Rose at the Olympic Games in Tokyo (&copy; AFP / Getty Images)
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In 2016, Rose improved to 65.74m and qualified for his first Olympics in Rio, representing his father&rsquo;s home nation. Three years earlier, he&rsquo;d completed his transfer of allegiance from the US, and the decision to represent Samoa allowed him to visit the Polynesian island for the first time, connecting with his family&rsquo;s roots.
&ldquo;My father went through so much in his life and he experienced things I&rsquo;ll never understand,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;So representing Samoa is a way for me to connect with him on a level I couldn&rsquo;t otherwise. It&rsquo;s given me the opportunity to meet my aunt.&rdquo;
He has visited Samoa several times in the past decade, and it always feels a world removed from the fast-paced life in the US. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s an incredible place, I wish I could go there more often,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s relaxing in that the things that seem very important in the United States, grinding in your nine to five, become secondary. They&rsquo;re a very family-centred culture &ndash; honest, happy, peaceful individuals &ndash; and it gives you a chance to reflect on what&rsquo;s important in life.&rdquo;
In 2021, Rose was given the ultimate honour by the nation when he was selected to be the Samoan flagbearer at the opening ceremony for the Tokyo Olympics. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s one of those moments that doesn&rsquo;t feel real, I can&rsquo;t believe it was me,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been very lucky to have a few staple moments that I&rsquo;ll never forget.&rdquo;
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/64ce29df1b400593744ba790.jpg" alt="Alex Rose carries Samoa's flag at the Tokyo Olympics opening ceremony" />
Alex Rose carries Samoa's flag at the Tokyo Olympics opening ceremony (&copy; AFP / Getty Images)
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Unfortunately, the competition itself in Tokyo was one he&rsquo;s not keen to remember, Rose bowing out in qualification with a best of 61.72m, having thrown a national record of 67.48m earlier in the year. &ldquo;I had three meets over 67 and was in great shape, but I got a little sick heading to Tokyo. I had a sinus infection I couldn&rsquo;t shake, my energy was down, my technique was suffering. It was a tough experience.&rdquo;
The let-down forced Rose to look within, asking himself if he truly wanted to continue.
&ldquo;Having to suffer through failure and having to face that every day for the next year and find a way to triumph, it teaches you a lot about yourself and how to deal with pressure and expectations and why you&rsquo;re in the sport to begin with. Is it for someone else, for recognition, or for yourself? I started throwing because it was fun to chuck a metal object farther than other people and if you take a deep breath, step back, you&rsquo;ll always remember that.&rdquo;
That&rsquo;s exactly what he did as he prepared for 2022, and Rose approached last year&rsquo;s World Athletics Championships in Oregon with a different attitude. For the first time at a major championships, his mother, wife and sister were all there watching him, with Rose looking their way and giving a little nod as he entered the ring for each throw. He qualified for the final &ndash; his first time doing so at a global championships &ndash; and finished eighth, throwing 65.57m, and walked away proud.
&ldquo;It really meant a lot to me. It was the culmination of so much pent-up hope.&rdquo;
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/64ce274ef437f90e8f3f22ab.jpg" alt="Samoan discus thrower Alex Rose at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22" />
Samoan discus thrower Alex Rose at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 (&copy; Getty Images)
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Weeks later, he finished fourth in the Commonwealth Games final, coming up just 59 centimetres shy of a medal. This year, he feels bigger things are coming. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not going to say I can throw 70 metres in dead wind conditions but I do think I can throw in the high 60s and if I can stay healthy, train at the level I&rsquo;m capable of, then I think I can surprise some people,&rdquo; he says.
Despite the time demands, he&rsquo;s working as hard as ever, typically doing four days a week throwing and three days in the gym. He eats about double the amount of the average man and he can bench press 226kg (500lbs), squat 285kg (630lbs) and snatch 133kg (295lbs), though the nature of his job means Rose is often squeezing in workouts whenever he time or energy.
&ldquo;I learned less is more as an ageing athlete trying to stay healthy,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t push for huge weight room PRs very often.&rdquo;
He offers huge credit to his wife, Sam, for the load she carries at home. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m very lucky she understands my drive and passion,&rdquo; he says.
Rose credits his breakthrough this year to &ldquo;staying healthy,&rdquo; given he&rsquo;s put in the longest period of consistent training for several years, the past couple of seasons blighted by the injury he sustained in 2020, when he tore his abs and adductors off his pubic bone, which required surgery.
But now he&rsquo;s back healthy, better than ever &ndash; Rose&rsquo;s journey offering proof, above all, of the value of persistence.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;d never have imagined I&rsquo;d be competing at this level and I&rsquo;ve been able to travel and do things I never knew were possible,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;If you believe in yourself, you can do anything.&rdquo;
Cathal Dennehy for World Athletics

By day, he’s a sales engineer and a father to a ninth-month-old son. By night, he’s one of the world’s best discus throwers.

Self-belief the key to Rose coming into full bloom

According to The Guinness Book of Athletics Facts and Feats, Peter Matthews&rsquo; 1982 treasure trove of track and field miscellanea: &ldquo;The smallest crowd to watch a world record was possibly 48 at John Muir College, Pasadena, on 11 July 1953, to see Fortune Gordien (USA) throw the discus 58.10m/190ft 7in.&rdquo;
Naturally, given the volume of global marks set going back so far in time, it would be difficult to verify the claim with absolute exactitude. Still, it would be entirely fitting.
Gordien was a giant of the discus in the 1940s and early 1950s. He also happened to be a gregarious showman who earned a living as a bit-part Hollywood actor, and as an escape artist and illusionist.
Like Al Oerter, Gordien was a four-time world record breaker and six-time US champion. Unlike his compatriot, arch-rival, the acknowledged all-time colossus of the discus, however, Gordien has become a largely forgotten, little-known figure in track and field history.
Oerter, of course, earned legendary status courtesy of his unprecedented four Olympic gold medals. Gordien took part in three Olympics, finishing third in London in 1948, fourth in Helsinki in 1952 and second in Melbourne in 1956.
He always claimed that the as-yet unheralded Oerter &ldquo;stole&rdquo; the gold medal from him in Melbourne.
Gordien was 34, the world record-holder, and the heavy favourite. Oerter had turned 20 two months previously. He had made the US team with the fortuitous help of a sudden gust of wind that blew his discus back within bounds at the trials.
By that time in his career, Gordien had been holder of the discus world record for seven-and-a-quarter years, with the exception of a three-week spell in 1953.
His first global mark came on 9 July 1949. Competing at an international meet at the Jose Alvalade Stadium, he threw 56.46m, eclipsing the 55.33m mark set in Milan the previous year by Adolfo Consolini, the Italian who won the Olympic title in London in 1948.
Gordien improved his record to 56.97m at Hameenlinna in Finland the following month. He held it for four years until his US teammate Sim Iness threw 57.93m at the NCAA Championships in Lincoln, Nebraska, on 26 June 1953.
<h2>At home in Pasadena</h2>
Three weeks later came the All Comers Meet at the Sports Ground of John Muir College in Pasadena which attracted that select band of just 48 spectators.
Seventy years on, it is difficult to imagine a world record being watched by so few souls. Even elementary school sports days attract larger crowds.
Not that it mattered to a beefed-up Gordien. He had been hitting the weights hard during winter training, increasing his weight from 90kg to 101kg (198lb to 223lb).
Gordien&rsquo;s style involved a running hop across the circle. It was described thus by the celebrated US team coach Payton Jordan in his book &lsquo;Champions in the Making&rsquo;: &ldquo;Gordien was an extremist who threw his all into his work, as well as the whirling turn in the discus circle. He employed far more lack of balance than ever before, but when it was tamed and working smoothly, his form increased the centrifugal drive to maximum proportions.&rdquo;
Gordien achieved a smooth blend of power and technique with his second throw that afternoon in Pasadena. He hurled his discus out to 58.10m, regaining his fleeting-forfeited world record.
Five weeks later, he returned to John Muir College, Pasadena to set his fourth world record, 59.28m. It lasted for six years, until the Pole Edmund Platkowski ventured tantalisingly close to the 60-metre barrier with 59.91m in Warsaw in 1959.
<h2>No out-psyching Oerter</h2>
So when Gordien made the trip to Melbourne in 1956, he was the world record holder and the man to beat. Consolini was expected to be his closest rival.
At the training track five days before the competition, Gordien unleashed a monster throw that was measured at 60.65m, 1.37m beyond his world record distance. The watching Oerter concluded: &ldquo;If he just holds his stuff together, nobody on earth in going to get near him.&rdquo;
Gordien &ndash; a brash, forthright individual &ndash; was of the same opinion. He made sure everyone knew how far he was throwing and that the gold medal was going to be his.
On his excellent website Al Oerter Back to Olympus (www.aloerterbacktoolympus.com), Andrew Pettit relates how Gordien tried to intimidate the rookie Oerter at a subsequent training session three days before the event.
&ldquo;Gordien was right behind me the entire time,&rdquo; Oerter recalled. &ldquo;He was constantly saying, &lsquo;Come on, come on, get in the ring, move it, let&rsquo;s go, let&rsquo;s go.&rsquo;
&ldquo;Until, one time, I got in the ring a bit too hurried and was in the act of throwing. Unknown to me, Gordien had entered the cage area behind me, so intent on his next throw.
&ldquo;I was turning and about to release when I slipped on the wet surface, causing me to launch the discus rearward with great force. It bounced off the cage right behind Gordien&rsquo;s head.
&ldquo;The man&rsquo;s blood drained out of his body. I don&rsquo;t know how the discus missed him. He got out of the cage and, from that moment on, he didn&rsquo;t push me anymore.&rdquo;
<h2>&lsquo;You could tell something was wrong&rsquo;</h2>
On the afternoon of the final at the hallowed Melbourne Cricket Ground, there were 100,000 spectators packed into the stands &ndash; 99,052 more than there had been in attendance at John Muir University to see Gordien regain the world record three years previously.
As the 16 contestants prepared to enter the arena, the favourite was performing card tricks. If his confidence bordered on the arrogant at times, he was naturally ebullient too. On bus rides with teammates, he would play a variety of tricks, pulling coins from their ears.
What Gordien had not reckoned for in Melbourne was his fledgling teammate trumping him with an ace.
When the competition began, Oerter noticed that the showman was somewhat flustered in the heat of battle. &ldquo;You could tell something was wrong,&rdquo; Oerter recounted. &ldquo;He was herky-jerky, animated, impatient.&rdquo;
Gordien hurled a respectable 54.75m with his opening throw but then Oerter, inspired by the competition and the buzz generated by the huge crowd, unleashed a mighty 56.36m. With his first effort, he had smashed Iness&rsquo; Games record (55.03m) and broken the spirit of his rivals.
The stunned Gordien could only manage 49.18m in the second round. He had to dig deep to improve upon his opening mark, finally doing so in the sixth round with 54.81m, but it wasn&rsquo;t enough to get near Oerter.
Gordien regained his poise sufficiently to congratulate Oerter. It was a third successive Olympic disappointment for him.
In London in 1948 Gordien took bronze with 50.77m, behind the Italian duo Consolini (52.78m) and Guiseppe Tose (51.78m). He travelled to Helsinki in 1952 as world record-holder (with 56.97m) but could only manage 52.66m and finished out of the medals in fourth place behind Innes (55.03m), Consolini (53.78m) and US team-mate James Dillon 53.28m).
The Melbourne misfortune hastened Fortune&rsquo;s retirement from top-level discus competition.
<h2>&lsquo;Some good days and some bad ones&rsquo;</h2>
Born in Spokane, Washington, and raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Gordien had learned his sporting craft under the guidance of coach Jim Kelly at the University of Minnesota.
He became a track and field coach himself, at San Bernadino Valley College in California. He also coached his son Marcus, a 65.28m discus thrower and 20.52m shot putter. At the Pepsi Invitational at UCLA in Los Angeles in 1978, the 23-year-old Gordien Jr. was beaten by the 43-year-old Al Oerter.
The elder Gordien enjoyed some success in masters&rsquo; competition, winning the discus title at the first US Masters&rsquo; Championships in San Diego in 1968.
In the immediate years after the Melbourne Olympics, Gordien earned a living as an escape artist and illusionist. His father had been a professional magician.
Gordien himself extended his showbiz range as an actor. While still competing at international level, he played a minor role in the 1954 film The Egyptian, alongside Hollywood stars Jean Simmons, Victor Mature and Peter Ustinov.
After his career, he performed roles in the US television series The Cisco Kid and Not for Hire. He also appeared in the films North to Alaska, Prince Valiant and The Winning Way.
In later life, Gordien combined his college coaching career with cattle ranching. He died in Fontana, California, in 1990, aged 67.
&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t remember myself as anyone great,&rdquo; he once said in an interview with the Minneapolis Tribune. &ldquo;I just remember myself as an athlete who had some good days and some bad ones.&rdquo;
Simon Turnbull for World Athletics Heritage

70 years on, looking back at Fortune Gordien's discus world record

Abracadabra, a world record! Gordien, the forgotten discus giant

&ldquo;I am strong,&rdquo; Chioma Onyekwere says before she steps into the ring. &ldquo;I am powerful. I am explosive.&rdquo;
It&rsquo;s an affirmation for Onyekwere to prepare herself mentally during each performance. But there&rsquo;s truth to it, too. The 29-year-old Nigerian discus thrower demonstrated her strength when she broke the African record earlier this season with a 64.96m throw that surpassed the qualification standard for the World Athletics Championships Budapest 23 in August.
Onyekwere has led a relentless career: as well as her area discus record she is a two-time African champion and last year she became the first Nigerian woman to win a discus title at the Commonwealth Games.
Beyond athletics, Onyekwere possesses a talent for mechanical engineering, which was her field of study in college. Moments not spent training for international competition are dedicated to her full-time work as an automotive engineer at Ford Motors.
But while her abilities in the circle stand out, her determination and leadership also warrants attention.
Two years ago, a lost opportunity lowered her hopes to the point of almost quitting the sport. But today, she speaks confidence into each attempt and sets an example for younger throwers.
&ldquo;I can do this,&rdquo; she says to herself now when she shakes out before competition. &ldquo;And I&rsquo;m capable of much more.&rdquo;
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/64ac4af1a51885c684cbda9f.jpg" alt="Chioma Onyekwere competes at the World Athletics Championships in Doha" />
Chioma Onyekwere competes at the World Athletics Championships in Doha (&copy; Getty Images)
</div>
<h2>Questioning everything</h2>
In 2021, Onyekwere was supposed to have her year of domination. She set a PB that season, opening up the opportunity to represent Nigeria at the Olympics in Tokyo. It would be her first Olympics. She says it felt like she was really on her way to achieving her dreams.
But she arrived in Tokyo to discover that the unthinkable had happened &ndash; she and some of her fellow Nigerian athletes were ruled ineligible to compete because the Nigerian Federation had not met the minimum drug-testing requirements for 10 of its athletes. Classed as a &ldquo;Category A&rdquo; country by the Athletics Integrity Unit, Nigeria was required to ensure that at least three no-notice out-of-competition tests were conducted on each of its athletes, no less than three weeks apart in the 10 months leading up to the Olympics.
Onyekwere returned home to Michigan feeling consumed by grief so heavy, she considered never throwing again.
&ldquo;It was definitely a time to stop and just question everything,&rdquo; Onyekwere says.
But as she reflected, she realised that she wanted control over her own throwing career.
&ldquo;I love throwing,&rdquo; she adds. &ldquo;And I wouldn&rsquo;t want to stop this just because something else was in play and prevented me from moving forward. I would like to end it on my own terms.&rdquo;
Her re-commitment to the sport was more of a process than an immediate shift. The first time she stepped foot in the ring again after a two-month break, she broke down and &ldquo;started bawling.&rdquo;
&ldquo;I had so much anxiety about coming back to track and field, and so much anxiety about competing in general,&rdquo; she says.
She spent time rediscovering what she loved so much about athletics. A self-proclaimed &ldquo;math person&rdquo; at heart, Onyekwere dove into the data of her progress. She keeps a journal where she records each distance, each mistake and each adjustment. She tracks her training schedule compared to competitions or rest days, then compiles all of this data into spreadsheets she can look back on.
&ldquo;I like numbers. Numbers don&rsquo;t lie. And it brings out my geeky side a little bit,&rdquo; Onyekwere adds with a laugh.
In addition to quantitative data, she also keeps notes on her emotions and thoughts during each throw. Tension and stress lead to messy throws. But when she&rsquo;s calm and having fun, everything clicks.
She says her affirmations about strength and power are an essential part of her routine to combat in-the-ring anxiety.
&ldquo;I have to calm my spirit and calm myself down before entering the circle,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;And then I just get after it.&rdquo;
<h2>You can have it all</h2>
Onyekwere shifted her priorities when she entered her new era as an athlete. She now wants to support the dreams of the next generation of throwers &ndash; the dreams she has for herself are a way to show them what&rsquo;s possible.
She started sharing videos of her throws on social media as a resource for younger throwers.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s such an honour, and it&rsquo;s so sweet, to be a role model for the throwers out there. That&rsquo;s one of the things that just makes you want to keep going,&rdquo; Onyekwere says.
Just a few hours before competing at the Oklahoma Throws Series meeting in April, a coach approached Onyekwere at the track.
&ldquo;Hey, I have this young African American girl that I coach, and she&rsquo;s just so inspired by you,&rdquo; Onyekwere remembers him saying. &ldquo;And she really looks up to you.&rdquo;
That was exactly the encouragement Onyekwere needed. At that meeting, she accomplished one of her biggest career goals when she broke the African record &ndash; previously left untouched for 16 years &ndash; with a 64.96m throw. 
<blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/reel/CrE9-K5PsBL/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14">
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<p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/CrE9-K5PsBL/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Chioma Onyekwere Lyons (@cicionyekwere)</a>
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 She realised that her accomplishments have an audience. Young throwers, and specifically female throwers, were watching to see what she&rsquo;d do next.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;m hoping to inspire lots of young girls pursuing throwing, or to pursue anything they&rsquo;re interested in. I want to tell them, &lsquo;You can really do it all,&rsquo;&rdquo; Onyekwere says. &ldquo;&lsquo;You can have it all.&rsquo;&rdquo;
She&rsquo;ll be the first to say that she wasn&rsquo;t the strongest thrower in college. While competing for the University of Maryland, it took her a while to break out of the 40-metre range.
But as she transitioned into her professional throwing career &ndash; while also working as a full-time engineer throughout the week &ndash; she saw rapid improvement. Onyekwere won her first senior African Championships title in 2018, only a couple of years into the professional landscape. She then competed at the World Championships in Doha in 2019, and broke the Nigerian record in 2021 as a qualifier for the Olympics. She successfully defended her African title in 2022.
Her performance at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 didn&rsquo;t go as she had hoped when she didn&rsquo;t make it through to the final, finishing with a mark of 57.87m. But she came back strong later that season to win gold at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
So, what&rsquo;s next for Onyekwere? She&rsquo;s continuing to work full time at Ford Motors. Her area record-breaking throw was more than enough to qualify her for the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, where she&rsquo;ll be chasing more improvements and hopefully more records. And she has her sights set on the Paris Olympics in 2024.
Most importantly, she wants her accomplishments to be a testament to the power of African women.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve said it before, but I really want to put Africa on the map and show that we&rsquo;re a force to reckon with,&rdquo; Onyekwere says. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re capable enough to have a seat at the table. And to do great things.&rdquo;
Madeline Ryan for World Athletics

“I am strong,” Chioma Onyekwere says before she steps into the ring. “I am powerful. I am explosive.”

Nigeria's Onyekwere proves her power, in and out of the throws circle

World champion Kristjan Ceh and Olympic champion Daniel Stahl once again pushed each other to great distances in the discus, with both men throwing beyond 71 metres at the Heino Lipp Memorial &ndash; a World Athletics Continental Tour Bronze meeting &ndash; in the Estonian town of J&ouml;hvi on Friday (16).
Ceh emerged victorious with a winning mark of 71.86m, while Stahl was second with 71.45m. Ceh became the first man in history to throw beyond 71 metres three times in one series, while Stahl&rsquo;s effort is the best ever mark for a runner-up finish.
Stahl opened with 66.28m but Ceh responded immediately with 68.93m to take the lead. Ceh improved to 71.70m in the fourth round, while Stahl sent his discus out to 67.20m. Ceh followed it with 71.19m, then Stahl ended his series with 71.45m to move to within 25 centimetres of Ceh&rsquo;s leading mark. The Slovenian wasn&rsquo;t finished, though, and he rounded out his series with 71.86m.
This was the duo&rsquo;s fourth clash this year; in each of their duels in 2023, the 70-metre barrier has been broken. Ceh leads their 2023 head-to-head with three wins to Stahl&rsquo;s one. But the Swede still has the lifetime advantage, their record now standing at 15-13 in Stahl&rsquo;s favour.
Ceh&rsquo;s winning performance equals Stahl&rsquo;s lifetime best and moves him to joint fourth on the world all-time list. Both men now own six throws in excess of 71 metres.
Elsewhere in J&ouml;hvi, Karl Erik Nazarov broke the Estonian 100m record with 10.18.
<h2>Werro runs world U20 record</h2>
The Meeting Nikaia made a return after 22 years, with a world U20 1000m record by Switzerland&rsquo;s Audrey Werro among the highlights at the World Athletics Continental Tour Bronze meeting in Nice on Saturday (17).
Werro, the world U20 800m silver medallist in Cali last year, ran 2:34.89 to improve the long-standing record in a race won by Uganda&rsquo;s Janat Chemusto in 2:34.35.
Andrew Coscoran won the men&rsquo;s 1500m in an Irish record of 3:32.68, finishing just ahead of 18-year-old Niels Laros who equalled the Dutch record with 3:32.89.
One week on from her 6.86m PB, Hilary Kpatcha of France won the women&rsquo;s long jump with a 6.79m leap, a single centimetre farther than runner-up Jazmin Sawyers of Great Britain. Ivana Vuleta was third with 6.72m.
Over at the Kuortane Games, a World Athletics Continental Tour Silver meeting, on Saturday (17), Canada&rsquo;s Camryn Rogers won the women&rsquo;s hammer with a 76.57m throw ahead of home star Silja Kosonen (73.78m), while the javelin contests were won by Jakub Vadlejch (86.83m) ahead of Keshorn Walcott (85.85m) and Irena Gillarova (60.83m) ahead of Kelsey-Lee Barber (60.37m).
USA&rsquo;s Cravont Charleston continued his strong season with a 100m win in a PB of 9.90 (0.9m/s). Britain&rsquo;s Oliver Bromby ran a PB of 10.12 for second place and Samuli Samuelsson placed third in a 10.12 Finnish record.
There were home wins for Wilma Murto in the pole vault (4.61m) and Reetta Hurske in the 100m hurdles (12.85, 2.2m/s).

Ceh wins discus with 71.86m, Stahl throws 71.45m

Ceh and Stahl throw beyond 71 metres in Jöhvi

Croatia&rsquo;s two-time Olympic and world gold medallist Sandra Perkovic will go head-to-head with USA&rsquo;s Olympic champion Valarie Allman when the discus stars clash at the Bislett Games, the fifth meeting in this year&rsquo;s Wanda Diamond League series, in Oslo on 15 June.
Perkovic claimed six consecutive Diamond League titles between 2012 and 2017, while Allman is a two-time winner thanks to her victories in 2021 and 2022. Allman only lost at one Diamond League meeting in 2022 and that defeat came at the Bislett Games, to Perkovic. Perkovic also secured silver at the World Athletics Championships in Oregon, while Allman claimed bronze a year after her Olympic victory in Tokyo.
Now they will compete again, as they both target further Diamond League success in a season that features the final in Eugene and a World Championships in Budapest. Allman has already demonstrated her strength this season, throwing 67.90m at the start of this month and then 70.25m for the third-best mark of her career one week later.
In a competitive field for the Oslo meeting, Allman and Perkovic are set to be joined by Olympic silver medallist Kristin Pudenz, world fourth-place finisher Jorinde van Klinken, European bronze medallist Claudine Vita and Olympic fifth-place finisher Liliana Ca.
Other athletes already announced for the Bislett Games include world record-holders Wayde van Niekerk in the 400m, Karsten Warholm in the 400m hurdles and Jakob Ingebrigtsen in the 1500m.
Sondre Guttormsen will compete in the pole vault alongside his brother Simen and Pal Haugen Lillefosse, while Karoline Bjerkeli Grovdal will line up for the 3000m.

Two-time Olympic and world gold medallist Sandra Perkovic will go head-to-head with Olympic champion Valarie Allman at the Bislett Games

Allman and Perkovic to go head-to-head in Oslo

Among the latest additions to the World Athletics Heritage collection which is displayed in the <a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/heritage" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Museum of World Athletics (MOWA)</a> are the singlet and shoes worn by Valarie Allman when she won discus gold at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
Her opening throw of 68.98m came before heavy rain forced a near-one hour delay in the event. No one, including Allman herself, could come close to that mark once the competition resumed, leaving her as the third US woman to win Olympic gold in the event, following in the footsteps of Lillian Copeland in 1932 and Stephanie Brown Trafton in 2008.
Germany&rsquo;s Kristin Pudenz (66.86m) and Cuba&rsquo;s Yaime Perez (65.72m) earned silver and bronze respectively. Croatia&rsquo;s Sandra Perkovic (65.01m), winner of the two previous Olympic titles, placed fourth, ending her streak of six global podium finishes.
Allman, a self-described introvert, had trouble adjusting to her newfound celebrity. &ldquo;When I come to a meet and there&rsquo;s people that want to take pictures and I hear on the public address system, &lsquo;Olympic champion,&rsquo; then it really hits me,&rdquo; Allman said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s definitely a bit of a shock, but I feel like I&rsquo;m slowly starting to get the hang of it and figure it out.&rdquo;
<h2>Bittersweet</h2>
She was the favourite to win another gold medal at this year&rsquo;s World Championships in front of a home crowd in Eugene, Oregon. She had thrown a world-leading 71.46m in April &ndash; the longest throw in 30 years and her third US record &ndash; and had beaten Perkovic, one of her strongest rivals, in three of their four meetings leading up to the World Championships. But it was not to be, as Allman finished third (68.30m) behind China&rsquo;s Feng Bin (69.12m) and Perkovic (68.45m).
While disappointed that she didn&rsquo;t come away with the win, Allman took pride in the fact that she became the first US woman to earn a discus medal at the World Championships. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s easy to lose perspective,&rdquo; she said at the time. &ldquo;It was bittersweet today.&rdquo;
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/63b4572e2e1177f0ddfb097a.jpg" alt="Valarie Allman at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22" />
Valarie Allman at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 (&copy; Getty Images)
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Allman was gracious in defeat, saying of Feng&rsquo;s opening toss of 69.12m: &ldquo;That was an incredible performance. It only takes one good throw, and she did it.&rdquo; And of Perkovic, someone she had looked up to as she progressed in the event, Allman added: &ldquo;Sandra&rsquo;s great. She earned a bronze medal in Doha, (when) she was at the top of her game and that was the first non-title in a while, and she didn&rsquo;t earn a medal in Tokyo. So, I do feel so much joy for her to earn a medal at these championships. She&rsquo;s been steadfast in her work ethic, her devotion to this sport and I&rsquo;m truly happy for her.&rdquo;
After a long competitive break while the Commonwealth Games and European Championships were taking place, Allman returned to the discus circle in September, winning in Berlin and Zurich (where she earned her second Wanda Diamond League title) before ending the season with a second-place finish to Perkovic in Zagreb.
<h2>Fluidity and connecting movements</h2>
Allman often credits her experience as a young dancer (&ldquo;my first love&rdquo;) with helping her excel in the discus.
&ldquo;When I first started discus, my brain instinctively thought of the movement as choreography," <a href="https://worldathletics.org/be-active/performance/valarie-allman-dance-and-discus" target="_blank" rel="noopener">she explains</a>. "I was able to learn rudimentary discus technique relatively quickly by thinking of the movement through the lens of my dance background. In their simplest form, both dance and discus are about fluidity and connecting movements."
While still competing as a dancer in 2010, Allman had a modest beginning to her discus career, throwing a mere 30.55m during her first year at Silver Creek High School in Longmont, Colorado. After concentrating solely on the discus, she showed marked improvement over the next three years, finishing her scholastic career in 2013 with a best of 56.12m. 
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<h3>Allman's journey to Olympic success in Tokyo</h3>
2014 - Allman continued to improve after entering Stanford University, winning the US U20 title in Eugene with a personal best of 57.45m. She then returned to Eugene&rsquo;s Hayward Field to earn silver at the World U20 Championships.
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/48538671-7d1a-48c6-a46d-16e4d77c60ed.png" alt="Valarie Allman" />
Valarie Allman
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2015 - Improving slightly to 57.48m, Allman finished fifth at the NCAA Championships and fifth at the World University Games.
2016 - She broke through the 60-metre barrier when she threw 61.42m while finishing third at the NCAA Championships and then finished sixth at her first US Olympic Trials.
2017 - Working with new Stanford assistant coach Zebulon Sion for the first time, Allman sat out the collegiate season, but still had a productive year, improving to 64.69m and finishing third at the US Championships to qualify for her first senior national team. She didn&rsquo;t make the final at the World Championships in London but was second at the World University Games.
2018 - Completed her collegiate career at Stanford with another third place finish at the NCAA Championships, won the first of her four US senior titles, and finished second at the NACAC Championships. For the first time in her career, she didn&rsquo;t improve her personal best, but still had a respectable season&rsquo;s best of 63.55m.
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/bc88b8cf-2678-439c-abd5-eeadcde5eb3e.jpg" alt="Valarie Allman in action at the 2019 World Championships" />
Valarie Allman in action at the 2019 World Championships (&copy; AFP/Getty Images)
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2019 - Improved to 67.15m. Won her second US title and finished seventh at the World Championships in Doha.
2020 - Made the most of her only competition in a covid-shortened season, getting her first 70-metre throw (70.15m) in Rathdrum, Idaho, to set her first US record.
2021 - Winner at the US Olympic Trials to set the stage for her gold medal performance in Tokyo. After the Olympics, she won her first Wanda Diamond League title in Zurich and improved her US record to 71.16m in Berlin.
She also competed in the hammer and indoor weight throw during her time at Stanford, with bests of 63.65m and 21.42m respectively.
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 The 27-year-old first started working with Sion after he was hired as an assistant coach at Stanford in the summer of 2016. Allman relocated to Austin, Texas, in 2018 to continue training with him when he took a similar position with the University of Texas.
&ldquo;Valarie is an absolutely strong, fierce, competitive, powerful woman,&rdquo; Sion says of the athlete Allman has become. When he started coaching her, he described her as: &ldquo;a little more unsure in her skin and where she stacked up relative to those more dominant people at the time.&rdquo;
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/63b452503216c3416bb9aa9b.jpg" alt="Valarie Allman in the discus at the Tokyo Olympics" />
Valarie Allman in the discus at the Tokyo Olympics (&copy; Getty Images)
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Sion, a discus thrower himself during his collegiate career at Georgia Tech, adds: &ldquo;Valarie resumed training at the beginning of October. I write her early fall training in a way that eases her back into physical activity progressively while addressing general fitness and specific needs before starting our more intense training.
&ldquo;During the fall, her training varies broadly and includes intense bike workouts, swimming, dumbbell circuits, med ball circuits, pilates, and yoga,&rdquo; adds Sion. &ldquo;I absolutely believe in training as an &lsquo;athlete&rsquo; and being fit as well as strong and powerful.
&ldquo;Over the past several years, we have really addressed specific areas of improvement, including technical refinement, fitness, power output, and specific throwing strength. Our primary goal for the 2023 season is for Valarie to have a more consistent technical rhythm throughout the season.
&ldquo;Even though she threw over 70 metres in April and again in September in 2022, I think she is capable of deeper throws if we can keep her technical rhythm more finely tuned, especially during certain training cycles where her power output is higher and more reliable.&rdquo;
Early indications are that Allman is on the right path as she prepares for next year&rsquo;s World Athletics Championships in Budapest and defending her Olympic title in Paris in 2024.
Walt Murphy for World Athletics Heritage

Among the latest additions to the Museum of World Athletics are the singlet and shoes worn by Valarie Allman when she won the Olympic discus title

Allman, recent MOWA contributor, on the choreography of discus throwing

A look back at the key moments of 2022 in the throws events

2022 review: throws

For Mine de Klerk, a 6:30am start constitutes a lie-in. For the past several months, that&rsquo;s what time the South African teenager would enter the gym at the University of Oregon, lifting weights before her morning classes. Then, at 2pm, she&rsquo;d head to Hayward Field, completing her throws workouts in one of the most famed athletics stadiums in the world.&nbsp;
If that sounds like a tough routine &ndash; and it is &ndash; then consider what she&rsquo;d been used to at her home in Free State, South Africa, in the years before.&nbsp;
&ldquo;I used to wake up at 4:30am to do lifting and boxing before I went to school,&rdquo; she says.&nbsp;
It was a routine she began in 2020 and, whether it&rsquo;s correlation or causation, De Klerk took one giant leap forward soon after, improving her discus PB by eight metres last year, throwing an African record of 53.50m to win silver at the World Athletics U20 Championships in Nairobi. At the start of 2021 she also improved her shot put best to 17.55m, an African U20 record, and took world U20 gold last August with 17.40m.&nbsp; 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/62e6c6c657093fe2ee7a4062.jpg" alt="Mine de Klerk contests the discus at the World Athletics U20 Championships Nairobi 21" />
Mine de Klerk contests the discus at the World Athletics U20 Championships Nairobi 21 (&copy; Roger Sedres)
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And now the 19-year-old finds herself in Colombia, her first visit to South America built around a singular purpose: to retain her shot put title at the&nbsp;World Athletics U20 Championships Cali 22.&nbsp;
It&rsquo;s set to be a busy few days.&nbsp;
De Klerk will compete in the women&rsquo;s shot put and discus qualification rounds on Monday (1) and, all going well there, she&rsquo;ll be back for the shot put final on Tuesday and the discus final on Wednesday. Her goal this week?
&ldquo;I really want to win the gold again, defend my title in the shot put,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;The discus is going to be harder, everyone is really close. I just want to throw a PR, make the final and do my best. If I win a medal, that&rsquo;s a bonus.&rdquo;
Training for two events, especially at the level she&rsquo;s reached, is not easy. &ldquo;Because I don&rsquo;t do the same technique,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;I do the glide in the shot put and then the discus is rotational.&rdquo;
Nonetheless, De Klerk has long seemed a natural fit for both, ever since taking up throwing events at the age of 10. &ldquo;My primary school had a little mock meet and me and my dad decided I should do the shot put,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;I actually threw really far for my age and then we were like, &lsquo;let&rsquo;s do this&rsquo;. I&rsquo;ve been doing it ever since.&rdquo; 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/62e6c60b8f36819df42a516e.jpg" alt="Mine de Klerk speaks at the pre event press conference ahead of the World Athletics U20 Championships Cali 22" />
Mine de Klerk speaks at the pre event press conference ahead of the World Athletics U20 Championships Cali 22 (&copy; Marta Gorczynska)
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De Klerk&rsquo;s family is steeped in sport. Her dad had thrown the javelin here and there, but he&rsquo;s mainly a rugby player. Her mother plays hockey, her brother plays cricket, while her younger sister is also a shot putter.&nbsp;
Success for De Klerk came early, and often.&nbsp;
&ldquo;Since I was 11 I was national champion,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;I started doing discus at 12 and when I got to high school it was bronze the first year, then gold and then silver when I was 16, and then gold since.&rdquo;
As she came towards the end of her school days in South Africa, De Klerk set her sights on a move to the US. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s so many more opportunities than back home,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;I chose the University of Oregon because of the people &ndash; I got along very well with the coach and the facilities are amazing.&rdquo;
She moved to Eugene at the start of this year, where she&rsquo;s coached by Erik Whitsitt, juggling training with her studies in human physiology. Walking into Hayward Field every afternoon for training still feels a little surreal.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s very hard to believe I get to train there, watching Worlds and being like, &lsquo;I train there.&rsquo; But it&rsquo;s a very big privilege and an opportunity,&rdquo; she says.
The hard-knock life of the NCAA has forced her to realign her expectations.&nbsp;
&ldquo;I was used to being, not the best, but I&rsquo;d always win, even on a bad day,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;It pushes me to be better and it taught me how to handle the pressure. It&rsquo;s all in the mind. Your mind is your biggest weapon and if I don&rsquo;t believe in myself, I&rsquo;m not going to do as well as I want to.&rdquo; 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/62e6c2869509dbb0f6d4b1e0.jpg" alt="Mine de Klerk competes in the shot put final during the Pac-12 Championships at Hayward Field" />
Mine de Klerk competes in the shot put final during the Pac-12 Championships at Hayward Field (&copy; Getty Images)
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Given English is not her first language, De Klerk struggled a little at the start with the academic demands, but she&rsquo;s since got to grips with things. As much as she wanted to hang around campus until the World Athletics Championships came to town, De Klerk found herself missing home too much at the end of the semester so she flew home in mid-June to spend the South African winter with her family.&nbsp;
In her spare time, she likes to get out for adventurous hikes, but so much of her life these days revolves around the throwing circle &ndash; refining what she does inside it to try and emulate the greats. De Klerk was born in New Zealand and, as such, it&rsquo;s no surprise that Valerie Adams was long a role model. Adams, the two-time Olympic champion, won the world U20 shot put title 20 years ago, throwing a PB of 17.73m to take gold in Kingston, Jamaica.&nbsp;
De Klerk&rsquo;s best now is just 18cm shy of that mark, and only one thrower in the women&rsquo;s shot put in Cali &ndash; Turkey&rsquo;s Pinar Akyol &ndash; has thrown beyond it. She&rsquo;d love to follow in Adams&rsquo; footsteps by making winning a habit at global level, and the first step to doing that at senior level is to do it against the world&rsquo;s best teenagers. Down the line, De Klerk is aiming as high as she possibly can.&nbsp;
&ldquo;I really want to be in the Olympics, maybe win the gold medal one day,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;Not now, but maybe in 2028.&rdquo;
Such goals are all way off in the distance right now, but at the same time, De Klerk didn&rsquo;t go through all those early mornings so she could settle for mediocrity.&nbsp;
She wants to be great &ndash; one day &ndash; and in Cali she has the chance to take another step on that journey.&nbsp;
Cathal Dennehy for World Athletics

World Athletics U20 Championships

Mine de Klerk's first visit to South America is built around a singular purpose: to retain her shot put title at the World Athletics U20 Championships Cali 22