World champion Robert Harting is made to settle for second place in the discus behind Virgilijus Alekna (© Getty Images)
Hungary’s Zoltan Kovago took the world lead in the men’s discus with a throw of 69.50m in the Istvan Gyulai in Budapest on 30 July.
The timing was perfect, Kovago hitting top form just as dangerous rivals for the gold medal in Daegu appeared to be dropping off a little. Virgilijus Alekna, at 39 the grand old man of the event with two Olympic and two world titles to his name, was almost four metres back in second place. Current World champion Robert Harting was off-song in winning the German title.
Yet it was not a performance to propel Kovago to world championship favouritism. A solitary silver medal at the Athens Olympic Games aside, the 32-year-old Hungarian thrower’s record at major championships as a senior does not inspire confidence.
Kovago won the World junior championship in 1998. He failed to qualify for the final at either the 2001 or 2003 World championships before taking the Olympic silver medal in Athens behind Alekna. He was tenth, ninth and sixth, respectively, in the Helsinki 2005, Osaka 2007 and Berlin 2009 World championships and failed to qualify for the Beijing 2008 Olympic final.
So a world lead may not a gold medal make for Kovago, though it must be said that it’s a lot better to be throwing 69 metres and worrying about your temperament than to be throwing badly and worrying about your form and your temperament.
Defending champion Harting has been in good form in taking Samsung Diamond League wins in Eugene (68.40m) and Paris (67.32m), but he was unhappy with his 65.72m to win the German title a few weeks back.
“I have another five weeks until the World championships. I may do another competition but now it is all about training,” Harting said then.
Genial Polish giant Piotr Malachowski, second in both Beijing and Berlin, will be looking to go one better in Daegu. His best two throws of the year – 68.49m and 67.97m – have come at home, but he was just six centimetres short of Harting’s winning distance in Paris and nine shy of Alekna in Stockholm.
Alekna would be the oldest discus gold medallist should he win in Daegu. He has a credible shot at it, too, with wins in Stockholm and London either side of his loss to Kovago. The London win avenged his loss to Kovago in Budapest – there was a turnaround of almost four metres in a week.
US veteran Jarred Rome produced the third-best distance of the year with a lifetime-best 68.76m in the usually thrower-friendly venue of Chula Vista on 6 August. The 34-year-old was eleventh in Berlin and seventh in Helsinki in 2005 so, like Kovago, has a bit to prove at global championship level.
Spain’s Mario Pestano also came into medal calculations winning his national title with a 67.97m on the same weekend.
Others in contention for the Daegu medals include Estonia’s Olympic champion Gerd Kanter and Mart Israel, Germans Martin Wierig and Markus Munch, Spain’s Yennifer Frank Casanas, Erik Cadee of the Netherlands, Asian champion Ehsan Hadadi of Iran and Commonwealth champion Benn Harradine of Australia.
Len Johnson for the IAAF
