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Athletics at the 2004 Summer Olympics – Men's discus throw

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Men's discus throw
at the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad
Virgilijus Alekna (2007)
VenueOlympic Stadium
Dates21–23 August
Competitors39 from 26 nations
Winning distance69.89 OR
Medalists
1st place, gold medalist(s) Virgilijus Alekna
 Lithuania
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Zoltán Kővágó
 Hungary
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Aleksander Tammert
 Estonia
← 2000
2008 →

The men's discus throw competition at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens was held at the Olympic Stadium on 21–23 August. It was originally planned to hold the discus throw at the Ancient Olympia Stadium, but it was discovered that the field was not large enough to accommodate the range of modern discus throwers, and would have posed a danger to spectators. As such, it was decided to move the discus throw and to hold the shot put at the ancient stadium, despite the fact that the shot put was not contested at the Ancient Olympic Games.[1] Thirty-nine athletes from 26 nations competed.[2]

Hungary's Róbert Fazekas had initially finished first in the final but committed an anti-doping breach for failing to submit a proper urine sample during the drug test and was thereby not allowed to present his gold in the medal ceremony, resulting in his disqualification.[3] Lithuania's Virgilijus Alekna, who originally placed second in the final, eventually defended his Olympic title at the time of the medal ceremony and was followed by Fazekas' teammate Zoltán Kővágó for the silver and Estonia's Aleksander Tammert for the bronze.[4] Alekna became the 14th man to win multiple medals in the discus throw, and the 4th to win multiple gold medals—matching Martin Sheridan and Bud Houser, but still well behind Al Oerter's four championships. Kővágó's medal was Hungary's first medal in the event since Rudolf Bauer won gold in 1900. Tammert's bronze was Estonia's first men's discus throw medal.

Background

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This was the 25th appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics. The returning finalists from the 2000 Games were gold medalist (and 1996 finalist) Virgilijus Alekna of Lithuania, silver medalist (and 1996 gold medalist) Lars Riedel of Germany, bronze medalist Frantz Kruger of South Africa, fourth-place finisher Vasiliy Kaptyukh of Belarus, sixth-place finisher Jason Tunks of Canada, ninth-place finisher Aleksander Tammert of Estonia, tenth-place finisher Michael Möllenbeck of Germany, and eleventh-place finisher Dmitriy Shevchenko of Russia. Alekna was also the reigning world champion and runner-up in the 2002 European championship. The European winner was Hungarian Róbert Fazekas; he and Alekna were the favorites in Athens.[2]

Moldova made its debut in the men's discus throw. The United States made its 24th appearance, most of any nation, having missed only the boycotted 1980 Games.

Qualification

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The qualification period for Athletics was 1 January 2003 to 9 August 2004. For the men's discus throw, each National Olympic Committee was permitted to enter up to three athletes who had thrown 64.00 metres or further during the qualification period. The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress. If an NOC had no athletes that qualified under that standard, one athlete who had thrown 62.55 metres or further could be entered.[5]

Competition format

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Each athlete received three throws in the qualifying round. All who achieved the qualifying distance progressed to the final. If fewer than twelve athletes achieved this mark, then the twelve furthest throwing athletes reached the final. Each finalist was allowed three throws in the last round, with the top eight athletes after that point being given three further attempts.[6]

Records

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Prior to the competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.

World record  Jürgen Schult (GDR) 74.08 Neubrandenburg, East Germany 6 June 1986
Olympic record  Lars Riedel (GER) 69.40 Atlanta, United States 31 July 1996

Virgilijus Alekna broke the Olympic record with his first throw in the final, marked at 69.89 metres. His only other legal throw, his fifth, surpassed the old record but not the new one, at 69.49 metres. Róbert Fazekas was the first man to throw over 70 metres in Olympic competition, but his disqualification for doping meant that his 70.93 metres throw was not counted as a record.

Schedule

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All times are Greece Standard Time (UTC+2)

Date Time Round
Saturday, 21 August 2004 9:00 Qualifying
Monday, 23 August 2004 20:20 Final

Results

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Qualifying round

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Rule: Qualifying standard 64.50 (Q) or at least best 12 qualified (q).

Rank Group Athlete Nation 1 2 3 Distance Notes
1 B Róbert Fazekas  Hungary 63.88 68.10 68.10 Q, DPG
2 A Virgilijus Alekna  Lithuania X 63.80 67.79 67.79 Q
3 A Aleksander Tammert  Estonia 65.70 65.70 Q
4 B Lars Riedel  Germany 64.20 64.20 Q
5 A Hannes Hopley  South Africa 62.71 62.50 63.89 63.89 q
6 A Gabor Mate  Hungary 57.40 62.43 63.41 63.41 q
7 A Torsten Schmidt  Germany 56.86 60.63 63.40 63.40 q
8 B Casey Malone  United States 59.99 63.27 61.83 63.27 q
9 B Vasiliy Kaptyukh  Belarus 63.04 X 62.93 63.04 q
10 B Frantz Kruger  South Africa 60.91 62.32 X 62.32 q
11 A Libor Malina  Czech Republic 60.54 X 62.12 62.12 q
12 B Zoltán Kővágó  Hungary X 61.91 60.77 61.91 q
13 B Mario Pestano  Spain X X 61.69 61.69
14 A Jarred Rome  United States 59.35 X 61.55 61.55
15 B Vikas Gowda  India 61.35 61.39 59.87 61.39
16 A Jason Tunks  Canada 61.21 60.02 60.34 61.21
17 B Rutger Smith  Netherlands X 61.11 X 61.11
18 A Frank Casañas  Cuba 60.15 60.60 57.27 60.60
19 B Wu Tao  China 48.96 X 60.60 60.60
20 A Gerd Kanter  Estonia X 60.05 X 60.05
21 B Michael Möllenbeck  Germany 56.42 59.79 X 59.79
22 A Ian Waltz  United States 58.97 58.55 57.52 58.97
23 B Savvas Panavoglou  Greece 57.26 58.47 57.62 58.47
24 B Aliaksandr Malashevich  Belarus X 57.67 58.45 58.45
25 A Emeka Udechuku  Great Britain X 58.41 55.79 58.41
26 B Aleksandr Borichevskiy  Russia 58.12 58.19 57.86 58.19
27 B Ercüment Olgundeniz  Turkey 57.13 58.17 X 58.17
28 A Leonid Cherevko  Belarus 57.98 X 57.89 57.98
29 B Abbas Samimi  Iran 57.57 X 56.24 57.57
30 B Lois Maikel Martínez  Cuba 57.18 57.10 X 57.18
31 B Igor Primc  Slovenia 55.70 56.33 55.43 56.33
32 A Marcelo Pugliese  Argentina X 56.06 54.45 56.06
33 A Vadim Hranovschi  Moldova 53.77 52.30 55.64 55.64
34 B Omar Ahmed El Ghazaly  Egypt X 55.53 55.27 55.53
35 A Dragan Mustapic  Croatia 54.66 X X 54.66
36 A Jaroslav Žitňanský  Slovakia 53.30 X 51.87 53.30
37 B Shaka Sola  Samoa 50.36 51.10 50.97 51.10
A Anil Kumar  India x x x No mark
A Dmitriy Shevchenko  Russia x x x No mark

Final

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Rank Athlete Nation 1 2 3 4 5 6 Distance Notes
1st place, gold medalist(s) Virgilijus Alekna  Lithuania 69.89 OR X X X 69.49 X 69.89 OR
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Zoltán Kővágó  Hungary 57.31 66.40 66.03 67.04 58.25 X 67.04
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Aleksander Tammert  Estonia 66.66 X 64.28 63.95 64.04 X 66.66
4 Vasiliy Kaptyukh  Belarus 65.10 59.82 62.88 63.44 64.89 63.63 65.10
5 Frantz Kruger  South Africa 64.34 X 61.01 62.53 X 60.73 64.34
6 Casey Malone  United States 62.80 60.34 X 64.33 62.73 63.65 64.33
7 Lars Riedel  Germany X 62.80 X 62.80
8 Hannes Hopley  South Africa 60.18 61.99 62.58 Did not advance 62.58
9 Torsten Schmidt  Germany x 61.18 61.10 Did not advance 61.18
10 Libor Malina  Czech Republic 57.39 x 58.78 Did not advance 58.78
11 Gabor Mate  Hungary 57.02 x 57.84 Did not advance 57.84
Róbert Fazekas  Hungary 66.39 70.93 69.35 68.92 67.64 70.93 DPG[3]

References

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  1. ^ "Athletics at the 2004 Summer Olympics". Athens 2004. IAAF. Retrieved 12 February 2015.
  2. ^ a b "Discus Throw, Men". Olympedia. Retrieved 3 November 2020.
  3. ^ a b "Discus champion thrown out of Games after doping breach". ABC News Australia. 25 August 2004. Retrieved 22 April 2014.
  4. ^ Hersh, Philip (25 August 2004). "Hungarian Stripped of Discus Title". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 15 February 2015.
  5. ^ "2004 OLYMPIC GAMES - ATHLETICS QUALIFYING STANDARDS". GBR Athletics. Retrieved 21 October 2020.
  6. ^ "Athletics at the 2004 Athens Summer Games: Men's Discus Throw". Athens 2004. Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 15 February 2015.
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