Mykolas Alekna of Lithuania created yet another world record, bettering his own figure. He recorded a throw of 75.56 metres on Sunday at the Oklahoma Throws Series competition in Ramona.
With this throw, he became the first man to breach the 75m mark, smashing his previous world record by more than a metre.
In fact, he managed to break the previous record by half a metre with his opening throw of 74.89m itself. He achieved the 75.56 mark in the fourth round.
The Olympic silver medallist achieved the milestone at the same venue as was last year to break the longest-standing men’s world record in athletics, which had stood since 1986.
The record had come under threat earlier this week when Australia’s Matthew Denny recorded the second-farthest throw in discus history with an Oceania record of 74.25m in Ramona on Thursday.
Denny, the Olympic bronze medallist, had to bow to Alekna on Sunday with a best attempt of 74.78m which surpassed the Lithuanian’s previous world record but left him runner-up.
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More about Mykolas Alekna…
- Alekna won Olympic silver at Paris 2024, missing out on gold by three centimetres to Jamaica’s Roje Stona.
- He became the youngest ever winner in his discipline at the 2022 European Championships, setting the competition record in the process.
- In 2021, he was the World Under-20 and European U20 champion.
- At the 2021 World Athletics Under-20 Championships in Nairobi, his winning throw of 69.81m was a new championships record.
- He was also the youngest man ever to break the 70-metre mark, throwing 71.00m in California last year when he was still just 20 years old.
- He went on to win the European under-23 title with yet another new championship record mark.
- He is also the youngest discus medallist at the senior World Championships.
Mykolas Alekna hails from a family of discus throwers. His father, Virgilijus Alekna, is a double Olympic discus throw champion, who won Olympic gold at Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004 and world titles in 2003 and 2005. His brother Martynas Alekna is also a discus thrower.
“My father is my big idol. He’s a legendary thrower,” Mykolas told World Athletics. “I want to be like him one day. Maybe even be better than him? We will see what happens.”
