<p>Among the latest additions to the World Athletics Heritage collection which is displayed in the <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/heritage" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Museum of World Athletics (MOWA)</a></strong></span> are the singlet and shoes worn by Valarie Allman when she won discus gold at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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;</p>
<h2>Bittersweet</h2>
<p>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).</p>
<p>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;</p>
<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" />
<p style="font-size: 0.9em; color: #b2b2b2; text-align: right; margin: -15px 0 0px;">Valarie Allman at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 (&copy; Getty Images)</p>
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<p>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;</p>
<p>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.</p>
<h2>Fluidity and connecting movements</h2>
<p>Allman often credits her experience as a young dancer (&ldquo;my first love&rdquo;) with helping her excel in the discus.</p>
<p>&ldquo;When I first started discus, my brain instinctively thought of the movement as choreography," <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="https://worldathletics.org/be-active/performance/valarie-allman-dance-and-discus" target="_blank" rel="noopener">she explains</a></strong></span>. "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."</p>
<p>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.<br /><br /></p>
<div style="padding: 15px 20px 5px 20px; border: 2px solid #69D7E1;">
<h3>Allman's journey to Olympic success in Tokyo</h3>
<p><strong>2014</strong> - 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.</p>
<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" />
<p style="font-size: 0.9em; color: #b2b2b2; text-align: right; margin: -15px 0 0px;">Valarie Allman</p>
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<p><strong>2015</strong> - Improving slightly to 57.48m, Allman finished fifth at the NCAA Championships and fifth at the World University Games.</p>
<p><strong>2016</strong> - 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.</p>
<p><strong>2017</strong> - 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.</p>
<p><strong>2018</strong> - 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.</p>
<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" />
<p style="font-size: 0.9em; color: #b2b2b2; text-align: right; margin: -15px 0 0px;">Valarie Allman in action at the 2019 World Championships (&copy; AFP/Getty Images)</p>
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<p><strong>2019</strong> - Improved to 67.15m. Won her second US title and finished seventh at the World Championships in Doha.</p>
<p><strong>2020</strong> - 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.</p>
<p><strong>2021</strong> - 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.</p>
<p><em>She also competed in the hammer and indoor weight throw during her time at Stanford, with bests of 63.65m and 21.42m respectively.</em></p>
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<p><br />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.</p>
<p>&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;</p>
<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" />
<p style="font-size: 0.9em; color: #b2b2b2; text-align: right; margin: -15px 0 0px;">Valarie Allman in the discus at the Tokyo Olympics (&copy; Getty Images)</p>
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<p>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.</p>
<p>&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.</p>
<p>&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.</p>
<p>&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;</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p><strong>Walt Murphy for World Athletics Heritage</strong></p>

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

<p>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;</p>
<p>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;</p>
<p>&ldquo;I used to wake up at 4:30am to do lifting and boxing before I went to school,&rdquo; she says.&nbsp;</p>
<p>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;<br /><br /></p>
<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" />
<p style="font-size: 0.9em; color: #b2b2b2; text-align: right; margin: -15px 0 0px;">Mine de Klerk contests the discus at the World Athletics U20 Championships Nairobi 21 (&copy; Roger Sedres)</p>
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<p>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;<strong>World Athletics U20 Championships Cali 22</strong>.&nbsp;</p>
<p>It&rsquo;s set to be a busy few days.&nbsp;</p>
<p>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?</p>
<p>&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;</p>
<p>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;</p>
<p>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;<br /><br /></p>
<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" />
<p style="font-size: 0.9em; color: #b2b2b2; text-align: right; margin: -15px 0 0px;">Mine de Klerk speaks at the pre event press conference ahead of the World Athletics U20 Championships Cali 22 (&copy; Marta Gorczynska)</p>
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<p>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;</p>
<p>Success for De Klerk came early, and often.&nbsp;</p>
<p>&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;</p>
<p>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;</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>&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.</p>
<p>The hard-knock life of the NCAA has forced her to realign her expectations.&nbsp;</p>
<p>&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;<br /><br /></p>
<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" />
<p style="font-size: 0.9em; color: #b2b2b2; text-align: right; margin: -15px 0 0px;">Mine de Klerk competes in the shot put final during the Pac-12 Championships at Hayward Field (&copy; Getty Images)</p>
</div>
<p>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;</p>
<p>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;</p>
<p>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;</p>
<p>&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;</p>
<p>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;</p>
<p>She wants to be great &ndash; one day &ndash; and in Cali she has the chance to take another step on that journey.&nbsp;</p>
<p><strong>Cathal Dennehy for World Athletics<br /><br /></strong></p>

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

World U20 title defence the next step for determined De Klerk

<p>More than 1500 athletes from 145 teams are set to compete at the <strong>World Athletics U20 Championships Cali 22</strong> between 1-6 August.</p>
<p>Here we take a look at the women's and men's throwing events at the Pascual Guerrero Olympic Stadium.<br /><br /></p>
<h2>Women&rsquo;s shot put</h2>
<p>The gold and silver medallists from last year's World U20 Championships in Nairobi go head-to-head again. South Africa&rsquo;s Mine de Klerk and Turkey&rsquo;s Pinar Akyol have PBs just 10cm apart - Akyol having thrown 17.65m in May 2021 and De Klerk setting an area U20 record of 17.55m in the February. When it comes to performances this year, Akyol leads the way with her 17.46m indoor PB set in January, while her best outdoor performance this season is 16.53m. De Klerk, meanwhile, leads the season top list with her 17.19m from April&rsquo;s Hayward Premiere at Hayward Field, which recently welcomed athletes for the World Athletics Championships Oregon22. Now studying at the University of Oregon, De Klerk is sure to have been inspired by the performances taking place on her university campus. De Klerk also secured silver in the discus in Nairobi and is set to double up again in Cali.</p>
<p>Separating the pair when it comes to performances this year is Germany&rsquo;s European U20 bronze medallist Nina Ndubuisi. The 18-year-old threw a 17.27m PB indoors and has recorded 17.01m this season. On paper, this would look to be the battle for the medals, the trio being the 17 metre-plus throwers in the field, but Amelia Flynt won the US U20 title and has thrown a 16.53m PB this year, while Germany&rsquo;s Jaqueline Gippner and Czech Republic&rsquo;s Katrin Brzyszkowska have also achieved PBs surpassing 16 metres this season.<br /><br /></p>
<h2>Men&rsquo;s shot put</h2>
<p>Germany&rsquo;s Tizian Lauria tops this year&rsquo;s global list with the 21.15m PB he threw in June, a mark that adds more than a metre and a half to his best with the 6kg implement before this year. He has also thrown 20 metres or further on six other occasions this year, including when winning at the BAUHAUS Junioren-Gala in Mannheim at the start of July.</p>
<p>He is one of four athletes on the entry list to have surpassed that 20-metre mark, including his compatriot Lukas Schober, the national U20 champion. The 17-year-old threw 20.16m when winning that German title.</p>
<p>Joining them at the top of the entry list are Jamaican duo Christopher Young and Kobe Lawrence. Young claimed wins at the Jamaican Championships and ISSA/Grace Kennedy Boys and Girls Champs ahead of Lawrence, but Lawrence turned the tables at the CARIFTA Games, going beyond 20 metres for the first time with 20.02m. Young&rsquo;s PB is 20.20m, while Lawrence has the benefit of experience, having made the final at the World U20 Championships in Nairobi last year. South African U20 champion Aiden Smith is also just behind them with 19.99m this year.<br /><br /></p>
<h2>Women&rsquo;s discus</h2>
<p>Sweden&rsquo;s Emma Sralla and Jamaica&rsquo;s Cedricka Williams have both thrown beyond 56 metres this year, US-based Sralla leading the entries with her 56.38m national U20 record from Mckinney in April and Williams improving her PB to 56.21m when winning the Jamaican title in June.</p>
<p>South Africa&rsquo;s Mine de Klerk is a couple of metres behind them when it comes to performances this season, but she improved her PB to an area U20 record of 54.22m in March and has great experience to call upon, claiming a surprise silver last year.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I definitely wanted to win a medal in the shot put, gold was my goal,&rdquo; said last year&rsquo;s champion in that discipline. &ldquo;In the discus, I didn&rsquo;t expect to get a medal at all. I just came to enjoy it. When I got the silver I was blown away.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Williams was also in that world U20 final, securing seventh place.</p>
<p>US U20 champion Siniru Iheoma and runner-up Ames Burton are the other 54 metre-plus throwers in the field, respectively having improved their PBs to 54.47m and 54.08m this year.<br /><br /></p>
<h2>Men&rsquo;s discus</h2>
<p>Germany&rsquo;s Mika Sosna made history earlier this year, breaking the world U20 record with the 1.75kg discus in June as he threw 71.37m in Schonebeck. That improved on the 70.13m record set by Ukraine&rsquo;s Mykyta Nesterenko in 2008 and is almost two metres further than&nbsp;<span style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;">Sosna's</span><span style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;">&nbsp;nearest rival this year, his teammate Marius Karges.</span></p>
<p>Sosna suffered injury after his record-breaking throw but rebounded to win the German title with a 64.92m performance, while Karges threw 64.11m for the runner-up spot. Their PBs put the pair more than six metres ahead of the rest of the entries, though Spain&rsquo;s Marcos Moreno and Jamaica&rsquo;s Kobe Lawrence will also be among those in the hunt for a medal, both having surpassed 62 metres this year. Lawrence is doubling up with the shot put and won the Jamaican U20 and CARIFTA Games discus titles, while placing second at the ISSA/Grace Kennedy Boys and Girls Champs. His teammate Christopher Young was runner-up at the Jamaican U20 Championships and CARIFTA Games and is also doing the throws double in Cali, with a discus PB of 61.66m from February.</p>
<p>Moreno was ninth in the world U20 final last year, one place ahead of Dimitrios Pavlidis of Greece, who also returns.<br /><br /></p>
<h2>Women&rsquo;s hammer&nbsp;</h2>
<p>Rachele Mori has thrown an Italian U20 record of 68.04m this year to lead the entries for Cali by more than two metres. That performance came at the Meeting Internazionale Citta' di Lucca and the 19-year-old also won the national U20 title as well as placing runner-up at the senior event in Rieti in June. She has thrown beyond 65 metres in a total of six competitions this season.</p>
<p>Should all go to season&rsquo;s form, Mori &ndash; who finished sixth in Nairobi last year &ndash; should be going for gold this time, but there could be a close battle for the other podium places.</p>
<p>Her closest challengers look to be German U20 champion Jada Julien and Czech U20 title winner Barbora Stejfova, who have both gone beyond 65 metres this year with respective PB performances of 65.90m and 65.20m. Stejfova also made the final last year.</p>
<p>Emily Fink improved her best to 63.60m in May and secured her spot on the team for Cali by winning the US title, while Audrey Jacobs claimed both the Dutch senior and U20 titles and threw her 63.52m PB in June.&nbsp;Valentina Savva of Cyprus was fifth in the world U20 final last year and the 17-year-old recently claimed the European U18 title in Jerusalem. She threw a national U20 record of 62.70m in June.&nbsp;<br /><br /></p>
<h2>Men&rsquo;s hammer</h2>
<p>In an event featuring five athletes to have gone beyond 75 metres this season, it is Hungary&rsquo;s Miklos Cseko who leads them all with the 78.44m PB he threw at the International U20 Match in Maribor earlier this month. The national U20 champion has surpassed 75 metres in five competitions this season.&nbsp;</p>
<p>In the medal hunt, there looks set to be a strong Greek domestic battle between Nikolaos Polychroniou and Ioannis Korakidis, with the pair separated by only 20 centimetres &ndash; 77.72m to 77.52m &ndash; this season. The now US-based Polychroniou won the national U20 title earlier this year, while Korakidis was runner-up behind him at the Greek U20 Championships. Slovenia&rsquo;s Jan Embersic and USA&rsquo;s Tarik O'Hagan have both also surpassed 75 metres this season, respectively throwing 76.79m and 75.08m PBs.<br /><br /></p>
<h2>Women&rsquo;s javelin</h2>
<p>Serbia&rsquo;s Adriana Vilagos won last year&rsquo;s world U20 javelin gold at the age of 17 and she is now one of the big favourites to retain her title, having thrown three-and-a-half metres further than any of her rivals this season. Holder of the world U18 best, Vilagos has since thrown a national U20 record of 62.76m this year and has won eight of her 10 competitions this season, including at the Balkan Championships, Mediterranean Games, Serbian Championships and Serbian U20 Championships.</p>
<p>There are a number of athletes who could challenge for medals. South Africa&rsquo;s McKyla van der Westhuizen claimed silver at the African Championships last month and will be looking to build on her sixth-place in Nairobi last year, while Fanni Kover has only lost once so far this season and that was at the senior Hungarian Championships. Their fellow 57 metre-plus thrower Momoko Tsuji, the Japan U20 champion, competes, as does her compatriot Aoi Murakami, who threw a PB of 56.30m in Tokyo in June.&nbsp;<br /><br /></p>
<h2>Men&rsquo;s javelin</h2>
<p>If he achieves a mark close to his world U20 leading PB of 84.32m, then Ukraine&rsquo;s Artur Felfner looks tough to beat in the men&rsquo;s javelin. The 18-year-old leads the entries by more than four metres, his PB putting him fourth on the world U20 all-time list led by India&rsquo;s Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra. As a 17-year-old, Felfner secured silver at last year&rsquo;s event in Nairobi, also claiming the European U20 title, and now he will be going for global gold.</p>
<p>CARIFTA Games winner Keyshawn Strachan of The Bahamas is this season&rsquo;s No.2 and has ambitions of achieving an 85 metre throw to build on the national record of 79.89m he set in April. He also has experience of competing at the event, having placed seventh in Kenya last year. The top three on the entry list have all surpassed 78 metres this year, Felfner and Strachan joined by Germany&rsquo;s 17-year-old Max Dehning, who improved his PB to 78.80m when winning at the BAUHAUS Junioren Gala in Mannheim earlier this month. He also claimed the German U20 title and threw 78.05m in Halle in May.</p>
<p>Also looking to make an impact will be Dehning&rsquo;s teammate Simon Schmitt, the German U20 Championships runner-up, as well as Hungary&rsquo;s Gyorgy Herczeg and Cypriot champion Eleftherios Kontonikolas.</p>
<p><strong>Jess Whittington for World Athletics<br /><br /></strong></p>

A look at the women's and men's shot put, discus, hammer and javelin

WU20 Cali 22 preview: throws

<p>The three medallists in the women&rsquo;s discus were still taking their lap of honour and posing for photos with fans while the women&rsquo;s 3000m steeplechase occupied the inner lanes of the track on Wednesday (20) at the&nbsp;<strong>World Athletics Championships Oregon22</strong>.</p>
<p>&ldquo;This is my fifth medal in a row, so I know how to act when you are taking a medal at the World Championships,&rdquo; said Croatia&rsquo;s Sandra Perkovic. &ldquo;I think all three of us are deserving to have this applause, because we were really fighting.&rdquo;&nbsp;</p>
<p>China&rsquo;s Feng Bin uncorked a monster throw of 69.12m as soon as she stepped into the circle, which exceeded her PB of 66.00m from April by more than three metres. The throw also was the second farthest this year.</p>
<p>Perkovic, who called the competition &ldquo;one of the most stressful finals I remember&rdquo;, launched a season's best throw of 68.45m on her second attempt for the silver medal. Tokyo Olympic champion Valarie Allman took the bronze with a best of 68.30m in the third round to become the first US woman to make the podium in the event in World Championships history.</p>
<p>No one else in the field could get within three metres of the medallists, with Jorinde van Klinken of the Netherlands finishing fourth at 64.97m and defending champion Yaime Perez of Cuba seventh at 63.07m.</p>
<p>And while Perkovic and Allman tried mightily, they could not match Feng. Perkovic&rsquo;s best attempt in the final three rounds was 67.74m, while Allman&rsquo;s best was 68.05m.</p>
<p>The 28-year-old Chinese thrower couldn&rsquo;t duplicate her first-round effort, either, with her next best toss 66.89m.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I am so excited and I have to say all opponents did a very good job today,&rdquo; said Feng. &ldquo;I did not expect this result coming to Eugene. I just wanted to show my best.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Feng is the second women&rsquo;s discus world champion from China after Li Yanfeng in 2011.</p>
<p>She said that after failing to reach the final in Tokyo, her coach gave her support and courage. &ldquo;He pushed me to move forward and to work hard,&rdquo; Feng said. &ldquo;He taught me how to not give up. I have a huge respect to all my rivals in this final. I would like to catch them up in the future and to be much more stable with my results."</p>
<p>Perkovic, 32, who has won two world titles and two Olympic titles, said she came into Oregon with two goals: to throw a season's best and to beat Allman on her home field.</p>
<p>She accomplished both, but said: &ldquo;We didn&rsquo;t expect the Chinese thrower to beat us all.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Yet Perkovic was thrilled to go home with the silver medal, which made her the first woman to win five medals in the event. She also won golds in 2013 and 2017, silver in 2015 and bronze in 2019.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Today I know that I have more in my hand, but I couldn&rsquo;t reach it,&rdquo; Perkovic said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m glad that after so many years, after 2009 when I first managed going in the final in Berlin, and in 2022 I&rsquo;m still here and taking the silver medal. So I&rsquo;m pleased and happy.&rdquo;&nbsp;</p>
<p>That&rsquo;s a turnaround from last season, when Perkovic placed fourth at the Tokyo Olympics, missing her first major podium in years.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I was so disappointed and sad,&rdquo; she said.</p>
<p>The competition in Eugene perked her up. &ldquo;If somebody told me before the competition that I would beat Valarie and get the silver medal, I would sign immediately,&rdquo; she said.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Yeah, I believe that,&rdquo; Allman said with a laugh, but added, &ldquo;I feel so much joy for her to earn a medal at this championships. She&rsquo;s been steadfast in her work ethic, her devotion to this sport and I&rsquo;m truly happy for her.&rdquo;</p>
<p>But the US champion had mixed emotions about her own bronze medal.&nbsp;</p>
<p>&ldquo;It was bittersweet today,&rdquo; Allman, 27, said. &ldquo;I feel that I had so much that I could have shown today and it would have been so special to do it here at home. But sometimes you need that extra motivation and I&rsquo;m definitely gong to take away a lot from not being at the top of podium and I&rsquo;m excited to use that going forward.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Allman, who came in with the world-leading mark of 71.46m, set the pace with her first throw of 67.62m, but minutes later Feng surpassed her.&nbsp;</p>
<p>&ldquo;That was a great throw,&rdquo; said Allman, who in the qualification round had two fouls before finally producing a legal throw to make the final. &ldquo;We competed against each other many times in 2019 in the (Wanda) Diamond League. We haven&rsquo;t seen each other since Tokyo, so it&rsquo;s always a bit of a mystery as to what shape the Chinese are in.&nbsp;But that was an incredible performance. It only takes one and she did it. Nothing but respect to her.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Allman couldn&rsquo;t put her finger on what went wrong for her. &ldquo;I felt going into the final that you can do everything to prepare to the best of your ability,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;but sometimes the moment just gets away from you. As an athlete, you want that battle. You want to feel that fire inside of you. And gosh, I got to feel it for six rounds and that is such a joy. Normally you want to try to channel that into the throw and I couldn&rsquo;t find that big one.&rdquo;</p>
<p><strong>Karen Rosen for World Athletics</strong></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<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"><strong>WOMEN'S DISCUS MEDALLISTS</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 10%; background-color: #e9c968; text-align: center;">🥇</td>
<td style="width: 60%; background-color: #e9c968;">Feng Bin 🇨🇳 CHN</td>
<td style="width: 30%; background-color: #e9c968;">69.12m PB</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 10%; background-color: #ced4d9; text-align: center;">🥈</td>
<td style="width: 60%; background-color: #ced4d9;">Sandra Perkovic 🇭🇷 CRO</td>
<td style="width: 30%; background-color: #ced4d9;">68.45m SB</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 10%; background-color: #bd895e; text-align: center;">🥉</td>
<td style="width: 60%; background-color: #bd895e;">Valarie Allman 🇺🇸 USA</td>
<td style="width: 30%; background-color: #bd895e;">68.30m</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="background-color: #34495e; text-align: left;" colspan="3">&nbsp;&nbsp;<span style="text-decoration: underline; color: #ffffff;"><strong><a style="color: #ffffff;" href="https://www.worldathletics.org/competitions/world-athletics-championships/oregon22/results/women/discus-throw/final/result" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Full results</a></strong></span></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>&nbsp;</p>

World Athletics Championships, Oregon 2022

China’s Feng Bin uncorked a monster throw of 69.12m as soon as she stepped into the circle

Feng upsets Perkovic and Allman to win world discus gold

<p>What a difference a few years can make.</p>
<p>When Kristjan Ceh made his World Championships debut in Doha three years ago, he finished 31st of 32 competitors in qualifying, well short of making the final.</p>
<p>Fast forward to 2022 and the Slovenian giant won the world discus title with a championship record of 71.13m.</p>
<p>He started as the favourite, having won 13 of his 14 competitions this year, three of which were beyond 70 metres. But he was also up against one of the strongest ever fields in a World Championships discus final and was taking on Olympic champion Daniel Stahl, the one man who has beaten Ceh this year and who last month threw a world-leading 71.47m.</p>
<p>But it was another winner of a past global title, 2017 world champion Andrius Gudzius, who took an early lead in the final. The Lithuanian set out his stall with a 67.31m throw, overtaking the 66.64m set by his younger compatriot Mykolas Alekna. Stahl opened with 66.59m and Ceh landed his discus at 65.27m.</p>
<p>Ceh found better rhythm in round two, sending his implement out to 69.02m to take a comfortable lead. Alekna responded with 67.87m to move into second place ahead of Gudzius. Olympic silver medallist Simon Pettersson of Sweden also made an impression in round two, throwing 67.00m.</p>
<p>But it was in the third round where Ceh blew the competition apart, his discus landing way beyond the 70-metre line. Just moments later the distance was confirmed at 71.13m &ndash; an improvement of almost a metre on the championship record of 70.17m set by Virgilijus Alekna, father of Mykolas, back in 2005.</p>
<p>Earlier in the round, Stahl&rsquo;s discus landed close to the 70-metre line and the distance flashed up as 69.16m, but it was soon ruled to be a foul throw.</p>
<p>The Lithuanian duo hit back in the next round, teenager Alekna throwing 69.27m and Gudzius managing 67.55m, but they continued to trail Ceh. Stahl, meanwhile, produced his best of the night in round five, throwing 67.10m, but it was 45 centimetres shy of a podium placing.</p>
<p>No one in the top five improved in the final round. Australia&rsquo;s Matthew Denny and Romania&rsquo;s Alin Firfirica saved their best til last, throwing 66.47m and 65.57m respectively for sixth and seventh place. Alex Rose was close behind, also with 65.57m, achieving Samoa&rsquo;s first top-eight finish in any event at the World Championships.</p>
<p>For the first time ever in a World Championships final, five men threw 67 metres or farther. Best marks-for-place were set by the athletes in sixth (Denny, 66.47m), eighth (Rose, 65.57m), ninth (Fedrick Dacres, 64.85m) and 10th (Lukas Weisshaidinger, 63.98m).</p>
<p>&ldquo;I knew I had the ability to produce a big throw, but this is a major championships,&rdquo; said Ceh. &ldquo;Of course the main goal was to secure the spot, but the best bit was the 71-metre throw. It was fast circle here but everybody has the same conditions and you just need to trust yourself. We have some time before the European Championships and I want to be the best there too.&rdquo;</p>
<p><strong>Jon Mulkeen for World Athletics</strong></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<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"><strong>MEN'S DISCUS MEDALLISTS</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 10%; background-color: #e9c968; text-align: center;">🥇</td>
<td style="width: 60%; background-color: #e9c968;">Kristjan Ceh 🇸🇮 SLO</td>
<td style="width: 30%; background-color: #e9c968;">71.13m CR</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 10%; background-color: #ced4d9; text-align: center;">🥈</td>
<td style="width: 60%; background-color: #ced4d9;">Mykolas Alekna 🇱🇹 LTU</td>
<td style="width: 30%; background-color: #ced4d9;">69.27m</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 10%; background-color: #bd895e; text-align: center;">🥉</td>
<td style="width: 60%; background-color: #bd895e;">Andrius Gudzius 🇱🇹 LTU</td>
<td style="width: 30%; background-color: #bd895e;">67.55m</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="background-color: #34495e; text-align: left;" colspan="3">&nbsp;&nbsp;<span style="text-decoration: underline; color: #ffffff;"><strong><a style="color: #ffffff;" href="https://www.worldathletics.org/competitions/world-athletics-championships/oregon22/results/men/discus-throw/final/result" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Full results</a></strong></span></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p><em>&nbsp;</em></p>

Slovenian takes gold with 71.13m

Ceh breaks championship record to win discus title in Oregon

<p>Kristjan Ceh has ambitions of becoming a chicken farmer. But first, there are global discus medals to be won.</p>
<p>The 23-year-old goes into the <strong>World Athletics Championships Oregon22</strong> as one of the leading contenders in a highly-anticipated throws clash at Hayward Field.</p>
<p>While he has honed his craft most recently under the guidance of coach Gerd Kanter, Estonia&rsquo;s 2007 world and 2008 Olympic champion, it is the hours spent working on his family&rsquo;s farm in Slovenia that helped to develop the base strength that Ceh now uses so powerfully in the throwing circle. It helped to propel him to fifth place at his debut Olympic Games in Tokyo last year and he returns to the global stage in Oregon as the No.2 discus thrower this year, behind Sweden&rsquo;s Olympic and defending world champion Daniel Stahl.</p>
<p>&ldquo;We have a farm at home, so I worked on the farm and I had the strength already,&rdquo; explains Ceh, who is now studying agriculture at the University of Maribor.</p>
<p>&ldquo;When I was in grammar school, one teacher brought a shot and suggested trying it. I was throwing far so he signed me up for a competition and a coach saw me there and asked if I would join. I started in the shot put but quickly changed to the discus because I liked it more.</p>
<p>&ldquo;My power evolved in training,&rdquo; adds the two-time European U23 champion. &ldquo;Because when I came to training I had a natural power, but I couldn&rsquo;t do one push up!&rdquo;<br /><br /></p>
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<p><br />Things have changed significantly since then. Now standing 2.06m (6ft 9in) tall, Ceh teamed up with Kanter last October and building on his breakthrough 2021, which saw him throw 70.35m and make his mark against some of the world&rsquo;s top throwers, he has since improved to 71.27m &ndash; a Wanda Diamond League record that he achieved in Birmingham to move to 10th on the world all-time list and improve his own Slovenian record.</p>
<p>The first of his European U23 gold medals was won in 2019, the same year he made his World Athletics Championships debut in Doha, and he retained his title in Tallinn two years later.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I mostly train in Estonia, not so much in Slovenia anymore,&rdquo; Ceh explains. &ldquo;So, I totally changed everything &ndash; the coach, the programme, the location. Everything.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Usually, when athletes make such big changes, they sometimes take a step backwards. But we have moved forwards, which is really good. We are doing good work.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Before it was hard, hard, hard work, and I think if I would have continued that I would have an injury now. We changed that, now it&rsquo;s more calculated. We also changed my technique at the start, making a big change to be more static so it is a little easier than what I did before. I think it has worked, for now!&rdquo;<br /><br /></p>
<p><iframe title="YouTube video player" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Lgs8XXeXkjg" width="100%" height="475" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p>
<p><br />His performances confirm that is the case. It was at the European Throwing Cup in Portugal in March that Ceh defeated Stahl for the first time and he followed up with wins in Birmingham, Rabat and Rome. But Stahl again showed his strength at the Swedish Team Championships in Uppsala in June, bettering Ceh&rsquo;s world lead with 71.47m &ndash; his second-farthest ever throw behind the 71.86m national record he set in Bottnaryd in June 2019. That came three months before the Swede won the world title in Doha and he went on to claim the Olympic crown in Tokyo.</p>
<p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a different feeling,&rdquo; Ceh says, trying to describe the emotion of beating some of the athletes he has been inspired by. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a special one, of course, when you do it the first time, but it&rsquo;s also a bit weird.</p>
<p>&ldquo;When I competed with those guys, the first competition I was so scared of them, I felt like I didn&rsquo;t know how to throw any more! But now it is fun, we have fun together, good competition. It&rsquo;s good.&rdquo;</p>
<p>As the saying goes, success breeds success. It is the first time since 2008 that two men have thrown beyond 71 metres in the same season, and another three athletes have surpassed the 69-metre barrier. One of those is 19-year-old Mykolas Alekna, Lithuania&rsquo;s world U20 champion in Nairobi last year. Like Ceh, another star is on the rise, but the Slovenian remains focused on his own development.</p>
<p>&ldquo;We are peaking for the World Championships,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I want to perform there as best as we can, then a month later we have the European Championships, so two big competitions in such close time.&rdquo;</p>
<p>But building on his Olympic performance must surely be an aim, with medals in mind?</p>
<p>&ldquo;Maybe it is, maybe it&rsquo;s not &ndash; I don&rsquo;t think about that so much,&rdquo; says Ceh. &ldquo;I just have my focus on the competition and what I am doing there. No pressure.&rdquo;<br /><br /></p>
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/62c5ad1c762eea9956f3b3d3.jpg" alt="Leading discus throwers Kristjan Ceh and Daniel Stahl will go head to head in Oregon" />
<p style="font-size: 0.9em; color: #b2b2b2; text-align: right; margin: -15px 0 0px;">Leading discus throwers Kristjan Ceh and Daniel Stahl will go head to head in Oregon (&copy; Getty Images)</p>
</div>
<p>It will be his first trip to the United States but he has been keeping a keen eye on the performances at Hayward Field, the country&rsquo;s track and field Mecca.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Crouser set the world record there in the shot put, so you never know &ndash; if there are good conditions, we could have some very good results in the World Championships,&rdquo; he adds.</p>
<p>But Ceh&rsquo;s ambition doesn&rsquo;t end there. Next year the global showpiece heads to Budapest and then there are also Ceh&rsquo;s goals outside of the throwing circle.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I want to have my own farm when I end my career, so I am aiming that way,&rdquo; he says.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Right now, I am mostly focused on this season, but of course I look forward to other championships,&rdquo; Ceh adds. &ldquo;Next year the World Championships are close to Slovenia, in Hungary.&rdquo;</p>
<p>And a medal in Oregon, perhaps even gold, would be the perfect launchpad to further success on that stage.</p>
<p><strong>Jess Whittington for World Athletics<br /><br /></strong></p>

Kristjan Ceh has ambitions of becoming a chicken farmer. But first, there are global discus medals to be won.

Ceh cultivates his craft on quest for discus success in Oregon

<h2>Women's discus</h2>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/competitions/world-athletics-championships/oregon22/timetable/bydiscipline/women/discus-throw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Timetable</a></strong></span>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/world-rankings/discus-throw/women?regionType=world&amp;page=1&amp;limitByCountry=0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">world rankings</a></strong></span>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/records/toplists/throws/discus-throw/outdoor/women/senior/2022?regionType=world&amp;page=1&amp;bestResultsOnly=true" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2022 world list</a></strong></span>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/records/all-time-toplists/throws/discus-throw/outdoor/women/senior?regionType=world&amp;page=1&amp;bestResultsOnly=true&amp;firstDay=1900-01-01" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><strong>world all-time list</strong></a></span>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/disciplines/throws/discus-throw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">how it works</a></strong></span></p>
<p>Since placing seventh at the 2019 World Championships in Doha, Valarie Allman has become an Olympic champion, improved the US discus record three times and taken the North American record to 71.46m, placing her 15th on the world all-time list.</p>
<p>Now she has the chance to go for another global gold in front of home fans at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22.</p>
<p>A competitive field &ndash; including the likes of two-time Olympic and world champion Sandra Perkovic and defending champion Yaime Perez &ndash; will be out to stop her, but if anywhere near her top form the 27-year-old will be a force to be reckoned with.</p>
<p>It was in California in April that Allman added 30 centimetres to her own continental record, achieving the farthest throw in the world for almost 30 years. She went on to win at Wanda Diamond League meetings in Birmingham, Eugene and Paris, as well as at the World Athletics Continental Tour Gold event at Mt SAC. In each of those Diamond League meetings she triumphed ahead of Perkovic, but the Croatian discus great turned the tables in Oslo. With her series of wins this year, Allman has closed the gap on their head-to-head record, with Perkovic now just three finals ahead &ndash; 11-8.</p>
<p>It is a friendly rivalry that has provided great motivation for the US athlete.</p>
<p>&ldquo;In my trajectory over the past 10 years, I&rsquo;ve really looked up to Sandra Perkovic,&rdquo; the former dancer has said. &ldquo;She was the one that held that accolade for a long time of really resetting boundaries that hadn&rsquo;t been seen in decades. And to be in her company, someone that I&rsquo;ve looked to as a strong, competent, dominant female, it&rsquo;s quite special.&rdquo;<br /><br /></p>
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/4b3db59f-f9c8-4fba-802b-c0db761e2d06.jpg" alt="Sandra Perkovic at the IAAF World Athletics Championships Doha 2019" />
<p style="font-size: 0.9em; color: #b2b2b2; text-align: right; margin: -15px 0 0px;">Sandra Perkovic at the IAAF World Athletics Championships Doha 2019 (&copy; Getty Images)</p>
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<p><br />After her runner-up finish in Oslo and then her win in Paris, Allman returned to Hayward Field &ndash; also the venue of her world U20 silver medal win in 2014 &ndash; with the goal of booking her place on her third World Championships team. She did so with a throw of 66.92m to win.</p>
<p>She now owns nine of the top 10 throws in the world this year and has gone beyond 68 metres in five of her eight competitions. Joining her in surpassing that mark this year is Perkovic, who threw 68.19m in Paris. Her national record of 71.41m was set in 2017, the year she won her second world title after victory in Moscow four years earlier. With world silver from 2015 and bronze from 2019 also in her impressive collection, the 32-year-old could become the first athlete in this event to win five world medals.</p>
<p>The consistent Croatian has finished in the top two at each of her six competitions this year, going beyond 65 metres in all bar one, and in 2021 she finished no lower than fourth. That came at the Tokyo Games, after her wins on the Olympic stage in London and Rio.</p>
<p>Four other athletes &ndash; Kristin Pudenz, Feng Bin, Rachel Dincoff and Shanice Craft &ndash; have also gone beyond 65 metres this season. Germany&rsquo;s Pudenz claimed Olympic silver in Tokyo and since the 66.86m PB that secured her that medal, the 29-year-old has further improved to 66.94m and then 67.10m this year.</p>
<p>Cuba&rsquo;s Perez joined Allman and Pudenz on the podium in Tokyo, two years after becoming the world champion in Doha. Her PB of 69.39m was also set in 2019 and this year she is unbeaten, with a best of 64.45m.</p>
<p>Feng finished fifth in Doha three years ago and threw a 66.00m PB in April, while Allman&rsquo;s US teammate Dincoff is also in the form of her life this year, having improved her personal best to 65.46m last month. Three-time European bronze medallist Craft, meanwhile, recorded 65.10m at the start of last month.</p>
<p>Hayward Field holds medal-winning memories for Jorinde van Klinken, who has won two NCAA titles in the Eugene stadium. The 22-year-old, who claimed the European U23 crown last year, launched herself into the spotlight with a Dutch record of 70.22m in May 2021 &ndash; then the furthest throw in the world since 2018 &ndash; to add almost nine metres to her pre-season best. Again contesting both the shot put and discus throughout this season, her best this year in the latter is 64.75m from April.</p>
<p>More than two decades after making her debut in Edmonton, France&rsquo;s Rio Olympic silver medallist Melina Robert-Michon competes at her ninth World Athletics Championships as the 2013 silver and 2017 bronze medallist.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2>Men's discus</h2>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/competitions/world-athletics-championships/oregon22/timetable/bydiscipline/men/discus-throw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Timetable</a></strong></span>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/world-rankings/discus-throw/men?regionType=world&amp;page=1&amp;limitByCountry=0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">world rankings</a></strong></span>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/records/toplists/throws/discus-throw/outdoor/men/senior/2022?regionType=world&amp;page=1&amp;bestResultsOnly=true" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2022 world list</a></strong></span>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/records/all-time-toplists/throws/discus-throw/outdoor/men/senior?regionType=world&amp;page=1&amp;bestResultsOnly=true&amp;firstDay=1900-01-01" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><strong>world all-time list</strong></a></span>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/disciplines/throws/discus-throw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">how it works</a></strong></span></p>
<p>All signs point to an epic battle in the men&rsquo;s discus at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 as experienced global medallists go up against in-form rising stars.</p>
<p>A glance at the top of this season&rsquo;s world list demonstrates the impressive range of talent &ndash; from world leader Daniel Stahl, Sweden&rsquo;s Olympic and defending world champion, to No.3 Mykolas Alekna, Lithuania&rsquo;s world U20 winner. Then there&rsquo;s Slovenia&rsquo;s Kristjan Ceh, who has continued his impressive progress this year, as well as Stahl&rsquo;s fellow global senior medallists Andrius Gudzius of Lithuania and Austria&rsquo;s Lukas Weisshaidinger.</p>
<p>They have all surpassed 69 metres this season, while Stahl and Ceh are separated by just 20 centimetres at the top. It is the first time since 2008 that two men have thrown beyond 71 metres in the same season.</p>
<p>The world&rsquo;s best have not shied away from competing against each other in the lead up to the global showpiece at Hayward Field. In the past four months, Stahl and Ceh have gone head to head on six occasions, with Ceh leading those clashes 5-1, but when it comes to their career finals record, the Swedish titan leads 13-5 and will be hoping he has once again timed his peak to perfection.</p>
<p>A two-time European U23 champion, Ceh claimed his first victory over Stahl at the European Throwing Cup in Portugal in March. The 2.06m (6ft 9in) Slovenian &ndash; who has been described as looking like Superman&rsquo;s Clark Kent in the circle thanks to the thick-rimmed glasses he wears while throwing &ndash; went on to triumph at Wanda Diamond League meetings in Birmingham, Rabat, Rome and Stockholm. The 23-year-old has continued to build on his breakthrough 2021, a year in which he improved his PB to 70.35m and finished fifth on his Olympic debut. Leading his performances so far this season is the 71.27m Diamond League record he set in Birmingham, a mark that moved him to 10th on the world all-time list and improved his own Slovenian record.</p>
<p>It was also a world lead until Stahl made his own statement in Uppsala. Launching the discus 71.47m at the Swedish Team Championships on 21 June, the 29-year-old recorded his second-best ever throw behind the 71.86m national record he set in Bottnaryd in June 2019 &ndash; three months before he won the world title in Doha with 67.59m. That came after Stahl&rsquo;s world silver behind Gudzius in London in 2017 and he went on to claim the Olympic crown in Tokyo last year.</p>
<p>So the Swedish star certainly knows how to perform on the major stage and his build up to Oregon has included that win over Ceh and other leading contenders at the Paavo Nurmi Games, a World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting, last month. In that competition, the top four &ndash; also including Gudzius and Weisshaidinger &ndash; all threw beyond 67 metres.</p>
<p>And, as Stahl explained at the Diamond League meeting in Stockholm where he finished third behind Ceh and Alekna, he feels no pressure.</p>
<p>&ldquo;The younger guys have the pressure now,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m just going to go there and be calm and do my best, and throw as far as I can.&rdquo;<br /><br /></p>
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/7147d93c-e215-4e54-b748-f59e3c7c8541.jpg" alt="Daniel Stahl in the discus at the IAAF World Athletics Championships Doha 2019" />
<p style="font-size: 0.9em; color: #b2b2b2; text-align: right; margin: -15px 0 0px;">Daniel Stahl in the discus at the IAAF World Athletics Championships Doha 2019 (&copy; Getty Images)</p>
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<p><br />That will also be the aim of 19-year-old Alekna, who threw a PB of 69.00m to win the Lithuanian title ahead of Gudzius, recording the best-ever mark by a teenager, and improved again to 69.81m for the runner-up spot in Stockholm.</p>
<p>At last year&rsquo;s World Athletics U20 Championships in Nairobi, Alekna threatened the world U20 record to follow in the footsteps of his father &ndash; two-time Olympic and world gold medallist Virgilijus &ndash; and become a global discus champion. Starting this year with a PB of 63.52m, the teenage Alekna threw 66.70m in March before improving to 67.68m in April, 68.73m in May and then 69.81m in June. Now placed third on this season's world top list, he has the chance to challenge for a senior global medal, something his father achieved seven times in his own career.</p>
<p>His rivals certainly have their eye on him, and are relishing the competition.</p>
<p>&ldquo;We have so many guys over 69, 68, 67 metres. I think everybody gets so motivated by it,&rdquo; said Ceh, with the championship record being the 70.17m Virgilijus Alekna threw to win his 2005 title. &ldquo;It would be different if one person was over 71m and the next was 65m. That would be boring.&rdquo;</p>
<p>The competition in Oregon looks set to be anything but. Gudzius, who won world gold in 2017 and the European title the following year, was just 20 centimetres off his 69.59m PB from 2018 when he recorded his second-best ever throw in Kaunas in May, while Weisshaidinger &ndash; bronze medallists at the Tokyo Olympics as well as 2019 World Championships and 2018 European Championships &ndash; improved the Austrian record to 69.11m in Eisenstadt at the start of June.</p>
<p>Sweden&rsquo;s Simon Pettersson, who split Stahl and Weisshaidinger at last year&rsquo;s Olympics, hasn&rsquo;t shown that same level of form so far in 2022 but has thrown 65.94m this season. Other athletes looking to make an impact will include Australia&rsquo;s Olympic fourth-place finisher Matthew Denny, Jamaica&rsquo;s 2019 world silver medallist Fedrick Dacres and USA&rsquo;s Sam Mattis, who won his 2015 NCAA title at Hayward Field and will want to make the most of the home support following his third-place finish at the US Championships and 68.69m PB in Arizona in May.</p>
<p><strong>Jess Whittington for World Athletics</strong></p>

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

WCH Oregon22 preview: discus

<p>Ukraine&rsquo;s world indoor high jump champion Yaroslava Mahuchikh continued her preparations for the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 by leaping a world lead of 2.03m* in Brno, Czech Republic, on Wednesday (22).</p>
<p>It is the 20-year-old&rsquo;s second world-leading performance within a week, adding two centimetres to the 2.01m she achieved to win at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Paris.</p>
<p>On Wednesday she went on to attempt 2.05m and won the competition, which was held in a car park setting at the Olympia Brno shopping centre, ahead of her compatriot Iryna Gerashchenko with 1.97m and Uzbekistan&rsquo;s Safina Sadullayeva with 1.91m.</p>
<p>Mahuchikh has now jumped two metres or higher in four competitions this year, including the World Indoor Championships in Belgrade in March, where she cleared 2.02m to claim her first senior global title. Her win in&nbsp;Brno continues her unbeaten season, following success in Eugene, Rabat and Paris.</p>
<p>After her win in Paris, Mahuchikh explained how she continues to train in Germany due to the conflict in her home country.</p>
<p>She will now be targeting her first senior global gold in Oregon, having secured world silver in Doha in 2019 before claiming Olympic bronze in Tokyo last year.</p>
<p>Over at the Swedish Team Championships in Uppsala on Tuesday (21), Olympic and world discus champion Daniel Stahl threw a world-leading 71.47m for the second-furthest throw of his career.<br /><br /></p>
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<p><br />The 71.27m recorded by Slovenia&rsquo;s Kristjan Ceh at last month&rsquo;s Diamond League meeting in Birmingham had been the previous world lead, setting up a highly-anticipated head-to-head for the world discus title in Oregon next month.</p>
<p>Stahl&rsquo;s best is the 71.86m Swedish record he set in Bottnaryd in 2019.</p>
<p>*<em>pending certification<br /><br /></em></p>

In Uppsala, Daniel Stahl throws a world-leading 71.47m

Mahuchikh clears 2.03m in Brno

<p>Valarie Allman has thrown the discus farther than any other woman in the past 30 years, but she is still taking her new fame out for a spin.</p>
<p>&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;Being an introvert, 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;</p>
<p>The 27-year-old USA thrower added: &ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s always going to feel like new territory.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Allman has been covering new ground in her sport since turning pro in 2019, a year that she said was &ldquo;kind of exploratory &mdash; faking it until you make it.&rdquo;</p>
<p>After placing seventh at the 2019 World Championships in Doha, Allman set her first US record in August 2020 with a throw of 70.15m. She has since extended it twice, while also becoming the area record-holder and Tokyo Olympic gold medallist. Allman has posted 12 of the top 13 marks in US history in the past two years.<br /><br /></p>
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/613e5b2d201f7451b581d3cf.jpg" alt="Valarie Allman celebrates her winning throw at the ISTAF Meeting in Berlin" />
<p style="font-size: 0.9em; color: #b2b2b2; text-align: right; margin: -15px 0 0px;">Valarie Allman celebrates her winning throw at the ISTAF Meeting in Berlin (&copy; AFP / Getty Images)</p>
</div>
<p>In early April, the three-time national champion unleashed a toss of 71.46m, an improvement of 30cm over her personal best from last September. Allman has now thrown 5cm farther than two-time Olympic gold medallist Sandra Perkovic of Croatia did in 2017 and is the No.15 performer on the all-time list.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I think for a long time I kind of viewed myself as the workhorse, that when it came to training it was all about, &lsquo;How do I get the most out of it?&rdquo; Allman said. &ldquo;Now it&rsquo;s about being more like a racehorse. &lsquo;When I&rsquo;m in the ring, how do I execute at the best of my ability?&rsquo;&rdquo;</p>
<p>A former dancer who was lured into trying the discus by the promise of a spaghetti dinner at her Colorado high school, Allman is not shy about expressing her joy in her performances. She smiles, claps and jumps up and down after good throws.</p>
<p>Undefeated this season, Allman followed up her record throw eight days later by winning the USATF Golden Games at Mt SAC in California, a World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting. She had a stellar series, with her best toss of 69.46m on her fourth attempt, but didn&rsquo;t quite adjust to the wind. Allman went back to work knowing &ldquo;there&rsquo;s a lot more in the tank.&rdquo;</p>
<p>&ldquo;We know it&rsquo;s really close to something amazing,&rdquo; said her coach, Zebulon Sion, who was encouraged by her progress in April.</p>
<p>At the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Birmingham on Saturday (21), Allman trailed Perkovic after the first throw. She then spun a 67.85m toss on her second attempt to pull ahead, although the Croatian came close with 67.26m on her final try.</p>
<p>&ldquo;In my trajectory over the past 10 years, I&rsquo;ve really looked up to Sandra Perkovic,&rdquo; Allman said. &ldquo;She was the one that held that accolade for a long time of really resetting boundaries that hadn&rsquo;t been seen in decades. And to be in her company, someone that I&rsquo;ve looked to as a strong, competent, dominant female, it&rsquo;s quite special.&rdquo;<br /><br /></p>
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/628cbc671a33bb84ae183f31.jpg" alt="Valarie Allman, Yaime Perez and Sandra Perkovic at the 2021 Diamond League meeting in Brussels" />
<p style="font-size: 0.9em; color: #b2b2b2; text-align: right; margin: -15px 0 0px;">Valarie Allman, Yaime Perez and Sandra Perkovic at the 2021 Diamond League meeting in Brussels (&copy; AFP / Getty Images)</p>
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<p>They will face off again at the Prefontaine Classic this Saturday (28) in Eugene, Oregon, the site of the <strong>World Athletics Championships Oregon22</strong> in July. Allman has two Diamond League meetings scheduled for June &mdash; Oslo and Paris &mdash; plus the US Championships, the qualifying meeting for the World Championships.</p>
<p>&ldquo;My biggest goal for this season is just really making Team USA proud at the World Championships when they&rsquo;re here in the United States,&rdquo; Allman said. &ldquo;That would be a crowning achievement if I could bring home the gold, especially in front of my family on home soil.&rdquo;</p>
<p>But she won&rsquo;t stop there. Allman said the date marking 800 days to the 2024 Paris Games &ldquo;gave me goosebumps thinking that another Olympics is that close.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Just three years ago, imagining herself in this position &mdash; a medal favourite who is slightly disappointed whenever she doesn&rsquo;t top 70m &mdash; would have been &ldquo;crazy,&rdquo; Allman said.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Even seeing pictures of myself from my first year as pro in 2019, it&rsquo;s hard to recognise the same person that I see now and then,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s a combination of all the adversity, the accolades, the hardships and the bond I&rsquo;ve built with Zebulon has really led to being able to step into a version of myself that I carry with a lot of pride.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Sion, who trains Allman in Austin, Texas, said the Stanford graduate is now an &ldquo;absolutely strong, fierce competitive, powerful woman&rdquo; compared to one who was &ldquo;a little more unsure in her skin and where she stacked up relative to those more dominant people at the time.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Their strategy was to normalise her rivals by facing them as often as possible. Allman gradually gained the same composure and poise she saw in them.</p>
<p>In 2021, Allman went into the Olympic Games with the second-best mark in the world of 70.01m behind Jorinde van Klinken of the Netherlands.</p>
<p>In Tokyo, Allman produced a prodigious opening throw of 68.98m, executing a strategy of dialling into her technique early that she and Sion had spent &ldquo;years in the making.&rdquo; That mark held up in the rain-marred competition for the victory.<br /><br /></p>
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/610816980d0ccbdb8aada2cd.jpg" alt="Discus winner Valarie Allman at the Tokyo Olympic Games" />
<p style="font-size: 0.9em; color: #b2b2b2; text-align: right; margin: -15px 0 0px;">Discus winner Valarie Allman at the Tokyo Olympic Games (&copy; AFP / Getty Images)</p>
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<p>While the Olympic gold medal obviously gave her confidence, Sion said Allman truly began to trust in herself and their training on the post-Olympic circuit, where she clinched the Diamond League title.</p>
<p>Knowing she thrived on routine when it came to nutrition, sleep and training, Allman felt anxious going into the European tour. &ldquo;To be able to produce some of my best throws that late in the season when the variables weren&rsquo;t quite as controlled definitely gave me a tonne of confidence about being able to head into new opportunities,&rdquo; Allman said, &ldquo;and knowing when adversity strikes that I have the tools to be able to handle it and perform well.&rdquo;</p>
<p>And yet even with so many accomplishments, Allman said one of her greatest strengths as an athlete is continuing to view herself as a novice. &ldquo;I definitely don&rsquo;t feel like the Olympic champion when we&rsquo;re out training,&rdquo; Allman said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m always chasing improvement.&rdquo;</p>
<p>&ldquo;We by no means as a team feel like we have everything figured out,&rdquo; Sion added.</p>
<p>They&rsquo;re both chasing something else, too. &ldquo;That big one,&rdquo; Allman said.</p>
<p>The world record of 76.80m was set by Gabriele Reinsch of East Germany in 1988. The top 54 throws in history are from the 1980s, a time now viewed with suspicion because of revelations about systematic doping in East Germany.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Any female that has thrown the discus over 70 metres, regardless of time period, takes intense focus and discipline and execution to be able to do it,&rdquo; Allman said. &ldquo;I would never want to discredit anyone and assume that they were not a clean athlete, but based off the data that we know and the time period and the stories that we&rsquo;ve heard, I think we are doing something that&rsquo;s really special.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m going to keep trying to just get better and throw as far as I can so there never is a debate about clean and dirty. It&rsquo;s just one record that people really do respect at the end of the day.&rdquo;</p>
<p>However, to move up the world list Allman knows she needs a perfect throw.</p>
<p>&ldquo;That&rsquo;s the throw that everything has to come together on the right day and in the right environment to be able to make happen,&rdquo; she said.<br /><br /></p>
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/61080f8dbf4f52b8b5bb648e.jpg" alt="Valarie Allman celebrates her discus win at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games" />
<p style="font-size: 0.9em; color: #b2b2b2; text-align: right; margin: -15px 0 0px;">Valarie Allman celebrates her discus win at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games (&copy; Getty Images)</p>
</div>
<p>To this point, Allman and Sion haven&rsquo;t tried to focus on meetings known for windy conditions to enhance their chances. They&rsquo;ve opted for competitions where Allman can be pushed instead by great athletes.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I feel like honestly we&rsquo;re just getting started with the things that we think can continue to rewire the modern discus throw and the distance that yields,&rdquo; Allman said. &ldquo;We really focus on power and speed and technique. To really work on continuing to climb up those record books, it&rsquo;s having all three of those things come together. You can&rsquo;t rely on one more than the other. It&rsquo;s having all three be at peak. It&rsquo;s definitely motivating.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Allman is also keen on rewiring the stereotype of women in her event and being a good role model.</p>
<p>&ldquo;When I was in high school and I joined the track team and first tried throwing, my friends couldn&rsquo;t help but make teasing remarks,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;As a female, it&rsquo;s tough to be pegged as doing something very masculine, especially when you are in a more adolescent phase. And there haven&rsquo;t been that many women who have really embraced their femininity in the sport on a big stage.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I fully support however anyone wants to come across and express their sexuality, express their confidence, express however they see themselves fit, but I think for me as a discus thrower there&rsquo;s something really elegant and graceful that I&rsquo;m hoping people can see in my technique &mdash; that you don&rsquo;t have to be that stereotype of bigger or heavyset to be able to have success. There are a lot of different body styles and technical models that can yield really great results.&rdquo;<br /><br /></p>
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<p><br />And Allman continues working on not getting thrown for a loop by fame. She&rsquo;s still incredulous about an incident from last summer. After winning the Olympic gold medal, Allman was able to chat with her family on camera through an NBC television connection. Her mother held up Allman&rsquo;s miniature Australian shepherd &mdash; named Oly, naturally &mdash; and using the dog&rsquo;s nickname said, &ldquo;Sugarbutt misses you.&rdquo;</p>
<p>When Allman arrived home from Tokyo, her family and Oly were waiting at the airport. &ldquo;Someone walked by and they go, &lsquo;Oh my gosh, is that Sugarbutt?&rsquo;&rdquo; Allman said. &ldquo;Someone recognised my dog and that took the cake.&rdquo;</p>
<p>A world title this year in Oregon, though, would be the icing.</p>
<p><strong>Karen Rosen for World Athletics<br /><br /></strong></p>

Valarie Allman has thrown the discus farther than any other woman in the past 30 years, but she is still taking her new fame out for a spin.

After launching to new territory, Allman aims for more in Oregon

<p>Al Oerter was already halfway towards becoming an Olympic track and field legend when he stepped into the discus circle for his fourth-round throw at the Coliseum Relays in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on the evening of 18 May 1962 &ndash; 60 years ago.</p>
<p>At 25, the native New Yorker had won the first two of his unprecedented four successive Olympic titles, both against the odds and the challenges of the current world record-holder. He had also survived a car crash that almost ended his life.</p>
<p>The colossus of the discus throw had yet, however, to etch his name into the world record books.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2>A landmark</h2>
<p>The global mark belonged to one of his rivals in the Coliseum Relays field. Jay Silvester had thrown 60.72m at the International Military Championships at the Heysel Stadion in Brussels the previous August.</p>
<p>In round two at the LA Coliseum, where John Anderson won home gold for the US at the 1932 Olympic Games, Oerter had come close with a throw of 60.54m. Then came a foul.</p>
<p>With his fourth effort, though, the sandy-haired 1.93m (6ft 4in) 134kg (295lb) bear of a man hurled his discus out to 61.10m.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I was at the LA Coliseum that night,&rdquo; veteran coach Jack Hayes posted on aloerterbacktoolympus.com in 2020. &ldquo;Some 58 years later, I still recall the excitement watching that throw land past the chalk line at 200ft.&rdquo;</p>
<p>In a country where the customary system of measurement historically favours feet and inches, Oerter&rsquo;s throw of 200ft 5.5 inches was hailed as a landmark track and field accomplishment.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2>A world record ditched</h2>
<p>The quest to breach the 200-foot discus barrier had been regarded in the United States as a field event version of the four-minute mile run.</p>
<p>It had been surpassed in competition twice before, but on both occasions in circumstances that rendered the marks invalid.</p>
<p>The first to do so was Richard &lsquo;Rink&rsquo; Babka, the US thrower who ended up second to Oerter at the 1962 Coliseum Relays with 59.05m. Competing in the Apple Valley Relays at Victorville, California in March 1958, Babka had a throw measured at 201ft 0in but his discus landed in a drainage ditch 5.9 inches below level of the throwing area, 5.5 inches beyond the legal sloping limit.</p>
<p>The official distance was adjusted by head judge Jim Reinhard to 198ft 10in. At 60.60m, that would have eclipsed US thrower Fortune Gordien&rsquo;s five-year-old world record mark of 59.28m but the fact that the circle was painted on to the concrete surface, though acceptable under NCAA rules at the time, was not permitted by the AAU or IAAF.<br /><br /></p>
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/6284ca48290f720f3d4cdaae.jpg" alt="US discus thrower Al Oerter" />
<p style="font-size: 0.9em; color: #b2b2b2; text-align: right; margin: -15px 0 0px;">US discus thrower Al Oerter (&copy; Getty Images)</p>
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<p><br />Oerter himself threw 202ft 6in, 61.72m, at the Arkansas Relays in Fayetteville in April 1958, but the field sloped 2.5%, too steep for ratification.</p>
<p>Oerter&rsquo;s officially recognised record did not last long. On 4 June 1962, just 17 days after the Coliseum Relays, Vladimir Trusenyev of the Soviet Union eclipsed that 61.10m with 61.64m in Leningrad.</p>
<p>Less than a month later, on 1 July, Oerter reclaimed it with 62.45m at the USA v Poland meet at Stagg Field, Chicago. He then improved the world record to 62.62m at the Mt SAC Relaysin Walnut, California, in April 1964 but lost it in August that year, when his Czech rival Ludvik Danek threw 64.55m in Turnov.</p>
<p>Oerter never regained the global mark. Instead, he established himself as one of the all-time greats in the competitive arena, becoming the first track and field athlete to win four successive Olympic gold medals in a single event. Over time, the feat has only been matched over time by Carl Lewis in the long jump.</p>
<p>When Oerter died in 2007, aged 71, Hal Connolly, who won hammer gold as a US teammate at the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, described him as: &ldquo;the greatest field event athlete of the 20th century. He was not just a great Olympian but Zeus himself.&rdquo;</p>
<p>In each of his Olympic triumphs, Oerter surpassed the Olympic record, beat the current world record holder, overcame injury and eclipsed the favourite for gold. He could have extended his run much farther had it not been for premature and temporary retirement, a US boycott and injury.</p>
<p>Still, he might never have stepped into a throwing circle at all.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2>Swapping track for field</h2>
<p>Born in the Astoria district of Queens in New York City, Alfred Adolph Oerter Jr grew up in New Hyde Park, Long Island. He started his athletics life as a sprinter but at 15 graduated to middle-distance running, when a stray discus landed in front of him on the track at Sewanhaka High School.</p>
<p>He casually threw it back farther than the school teammate who had thrown it and the school coach immediately insisted that he swapped the track for the field. He set a national schoolboy record, earned a scholarship to the University of Kansas, where he was a classmate of the basketball star Wilt Chamberlain.<br /><br /></p>
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/af72501f-8258-47cd-b796-9da6b6303a87.jpg" alt="Al Oerter (USA)" />
<p style="font-size: 0.9em; color: #b2b2b2; text-align: right; margin: -15px 0 0px;">US discus thrower Al Oerter (&copy; Getty images)</p>
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<p><br />Just five years after first picking up a discus, Oerter found himself making the long-haul trip to Melbourne for the 1956 Olympic Games.</p>
<p>Inspired by watching the first-round throws of the two favourites, current record holder Gordien and 1948 champion Adolfo Consolini of Italy, and by the buzz generated by the 100,000 crowd in the Melbourne Cricket Ground, the 20-year-old rookie international unleashed an opening effort of 59.18m. He broke the Games record of 55.03m, set by compatriot Simeon Iness in Helsinki four years previously, and shattered the spirit of his rivals.</p>
<p>No one was more stunned than Oerter himself. &ldquo;I had a hard time even raising my arm after that,&rdquo; he said. He finished a clear winner and was so overwhelmed by his unexpected success that he almost fainted on the medal podium.</p>
<p>Gordien took the silver medal with 54.81m. At 34, he moved on to other challenges, becoming an escape artist and illusionist.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2>Babka&rsquo;s friendship helps land Rome gold</h2>
<p>In 1957 Oerter was lucky to escape death in a car crash. He recovered from his near-fatal injuries to make the US team for the 1960 Olympics in Rome.</p>
<p>Rink Babka, the joint world record-holder, started favourite in the Stadio Olimpico and led with an opening effort of 58.02m. The struggling Oerter couldn&rsquo;t get close but as he prepared for his fifth-round throw Babka advised him that he had been carrying his left arm too low as he spun.</p>
<p>Oerter duly adjusted and unleashed a 59.18m Olympic record and PB. The gracious Babka was unable to improve on his opening throw and had to settle for silver. &ldquo;He had the gold medal in his pocket but he was a friend and a great team mate,&rdquo; a grateful Oerter reflected.</p>
<p>The odds were stacked heavily against the pride of Long Island completing an Olympic hat-trick in Tokyo in 1964. He was already suffering from a chronic cervical disc injury which necessitated the use of a neck brace when he slipped on some wet concrete in throwing circle six days before the competition and tore cartilage on the right side of his ribcage.<br /><br /></p>
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/61e99498336fbd2101309baa.jpg" alt="USA's 1960 Olympic discus medallists Rink Babka, Al Oerter and Dick Cochran" />
<p style="font-size: 0.9em; color: #b2b2b2; text-align: right; margin: -15px 0 0px;">USA's 1960 Olympic discus medallists Rink Babka, Al Oerter and Dick Cochran (&copy; AFP / Getty Images)</p>
</div>
<p><br />There was internal bleeding and Oerter was in severe pain, which was exacerbated to the point of excruciating by the stretching motion involved in attempting to throw. The US team doctors told him to forget about the Olympics and rest for six weeks.</p>
<p>Oerter demurred. &ldquo;This is the Olympics: you die before you quit,&rdquo; he told them.</p>
<p>Ludvik Danek was the clear favourite. He had taken the world record out to 64.54m and was unbeaten in 45 competitions.</p>
<p>Oerter paced the discus area like a wounded animal, finally ripping the tape off his side to nail an Olympic record of 61.00m in round five. It moved him from third to first and earned him the gold ahead of Danek, who threw 60.52m.</p>
<p>In Mexico in 1968, Oerter&rsquo;s US teammate Jay Silvester, holder of the 68.40m world record, was favourite. He broke Oerter&rsquo;s Olympic record in qualifying but only finished fifth in the final. Oerter took his fourth Olympic gold with his fourth Olympic record, a lifetime best of 64.78m.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2>69.40m PB at 43</h2>
<p>After a handful of competitions in 1969, the quadruple Olympic champion slipped into retirement, resisting the temptation to go for gold number five in 1972.</p>
<p>Then, in the autumn of 1976, as his wife Cathy, a former international long jumper, related: &ldquo;Al was driving through New England and found an all-comers&rsquo; meet at a local high school. He hadn&rsquo;t thrown or lifted in almost eight years. He borrowed a discus and a pair of throwing shoes and walked on to the field unannounced.</p>
<p>&ldquo;For an entry fee of 50 cents, he won a 4 inch trophy that was as important to him as an Olympic gold medal. He said, &lsquo;To be out in the fresh air competing with people who chose to do exactly the same thing was thrilling!&rsquo;&rdquo;</p>
<p>Oerter&rsquo;s goal was to qualify for the Moscow Olympics in 1980. That was scuppered by the US boycott but trials were still held at Hayward Field and, aged 43, he finished fourth, despite injury. The Eugene track and field aficionados rose to their feet and gave him a standing ovation that lasted for 10 minutes.</p>
<p>In May that year Oerter threw a PB of 69.40m and finished 1980 ranked second on the world list. Injury thwarted his attempt to gain selection for the home Olympics in 1984, yet still the old general of the discus soldiered on, throwing 62.40m at the age of 50 and claiming a world masters&rsquo; title in Eugene.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2>&lsquo;An interesting life&rsquo;</h2>
<p>Throughout his athletics career, Oerter fitted in his training around his work as a computer executive for the Grumman aircraft company on Long Island. In later life, he became a motivational speaker and an abstract painter, founding the Art of the Olympians, a programme showcasing the artistic talents of Olympic and Paralympic competitors and the spirit of the Games.</p>
<p>Oerter suffered from high blood pressure all of his life and was told at the age of 61 that he needed a heart transplant. He declined, saying: &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve had an interesting life and I&rsquo;m going out with what I have.&rdquo;</p>
<p>He died ten years later, in 2007 at Fort Myers, Florida.</p>
<p>&ldquo;All I ever wanted,&rdquo; he once reflected, &ldquo;was the feeling of the sun on my shoulders, a discus in my hand, a solid ring under me, turning with greater force than anyone has ever achieved, leaning into one more throw.&rdquo;</p>
<p><strong>Simon Turnbull for World Athletics Heritage</strong></p>

Al Oerter was already halfway towards becoming an Olympic legend when he set a world record of 61.10m on 18 May 1962

Celebrating Olympic legend Oerter’s first discus world record, 60 years on

<p>A clash between two global long jump champions and a rematch between the world and Olympic discus medallists will be among the highlights at the Pietro Mennea Golden Gala &ndash; part of the <strong>Wanda Diamond League</strong> &ndash; on 9 June.</p>
<p>German star Malaika Mihambo has dominated the women&rsquo;s long jump in recent years, winning European gold in 2018, world gold in 2019 &ndash; setting a PB of 7.30m &ndash; and Olympic gold in 2021. Mihambo won in Rome three years ago with 7.07m &ndash; the first seven-metre jump of her career.</p>
<p>This year she will take on Ivana Vuleta, who recently retained her world indoor title, Ukraine&rsquo;s European indoor champion Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk, Sweden&rsquo;s Khaddi Sagnia, Britain&rsquo;s Jazmin Sawyers, Chantel Malone from British Virgin Islands, and Italy&rsquo;s Larissa Iapichino.</p>
<p>The men&rsquo;s discus cast is just as star-studded as the women&rsquo;s long jump, and it features all three medallists from last year&rsquo;s Olympic Games and the 2019 World Championships.</p>
<p>World and Olympic champion Daniel Stahl will be aiming to achieve his first victory at the Golden Gala in what will be his fourth appearance at the meeting. The Swede will be joined by compatriot and Olympic silver medallist Simon Pettersson, world silver medallist Fedrick Dacres of Jamaica, world and Olympic bronze medallist Lukas Weisshaidinger of Austria, 2017 world champion Andrius Gudzius, and two-time European U23 champion Kristian Ceh.</p>
<p><strong>Organisers for World Athletics</strong></p>

Clash between two global long jump champions and a rematch between the world and Olympic discus medallists