It is what you do right that counts, and Spain’s Mario Pestano demonstrated that principle today, winning the men,s Discus Throw with his first and only legal throw.
With the podium of the Olympics starting here in Monaco and ideal conditions, this looked set to be a closely contested competition, even if the Olympic champion Virgilijus Alekna seemed the hot favourite to take the honours here too.
His first effort was overshadowed by the opening effort of Spain’s Mario Pestano, the first to throw in the competition, who opened with 64.11 metres to take an immediate lead that none of the other throwers was able to match in the first round. The Spanish record holder was half a metre of the next best, Aleksander Tammert of Estonia (63.61), with Casey Malone of USA third best with 62.73; Alekna trailing with 60.59 from his first attempt.
Round two and Kovago moved into the second place with 64.09 metres, as Pestano fouled this attempt, as did Tammert and Alekna. Malone stayed in third position with a second throw of 62.88.
Belarus’ Vasiliy Kaptyukh moved up into the fourth place as he improved to 63.03 with his third throw. Once again Pestano fouled with his discus finishing outside the sector as he lost balance, despite remaining in the throwing circle.
Then came the first solid throw from Alekna: 63.64 metres, moving the Lithuanian into the third place position, with no further improvements amongst the other athletes.
With the competition limited to four throws in the World Athletics Final, the last round was here and Tammert produced his best throw of the competition to edge Alekna off the podium, hurling his discus 63.69 metres to edge Alekna by 5 centimetres, as the Olympic champion was unable to improve with his last throw, which landed at 62.95 metres.
With victory already assured, after Kovago’s last effort of 61.65 metres, Pestano fouled his last throw, having earned the first prize of $30,000 from his first and only good throw of the competition. Kovago took second place thanks to his second round throw and Tammert third.
SWJ
