Australia's Matthew Denny celebrates his discus gold at the 2013 IAAF World Youth Championships (© Getty Images)
This has been a stellar year for Australian discus throwing with Ben Harradine and Julian Wruck both having thrown over 68 metres with the senior implement to currently sit third and fourth on the 2013 worlds lists. Now they have also lifted the World youth title in Donetsk thanks to Matthew Denny.
Denny, the Hammer Throw bronze medallist, had always believed that his best bet of a gold medal lay with the Discus and so it proved.
Germany’s Henning Prufer opened up with 65.62m in the first round but Denny went straight into the circle after the Shot Put silver medallist and responded with 64.63m to make it clear to all concerned that the battle for the gold medal was going to be between these two boys.
Curiously, after three previous days of almost still conditions, a late evening breeze picked up on Saturday, to help the Discus throwers reach big distances.
Neither Prufer nor Denny improved with their next two throws but then Denny unleashed a huge 67.54m effort in the fourth round to add 26cm to his personal best and 2013 world-leading mark.
It stood up as the winning distance as Prufer, who was throwing after Denny in the last three rounds after going into the circle immediately before him during the first half of the competition, fouled twice in the fourth and sixth rounds and could only reach 63.35m with his attempt.
After his big throw, Denny finished off his series with 65.38m and 64.80m in the fifth and sixth rounds before becoming the second Australian boy to win the Discus at the World Youth Championships, after Ronnie Buckley’s triumph a decade ago at Sherbrooke 2003.
China’s Cheng Yulong took the bronze medal with a personal best of 62.80m in the fifth round and had two other throws in excess of the 61.11m that his compatriot Chen Liangyu reached for fourth place.
