2012 Olympic Report Mens Discus v2

2012 OLYMPIC GAMES REPORT

Men’sDiscus

Produced byMalcolm Fenton England National Coach Mentor for Heavy ThrowsWith the assistance ofEmily Parker and Tom Crick

Fourth placer Alekna, a former double Olympic Champion and competing hereas a 40 year old, competed well, but his time has passed and he announced hisretirement at the Diamond League final, at the season's end.

Britain's Lawrence Okoye, finished last in the final, after having reached theautomatic qualifying distance the day before. He was to youngest finalist andlooks to be maturing into Harting's main competitor over the coming seasons.

INTRODUCTIONThe men's Discus, along with the women's Hammer, were two of the highlightcompetitions of the London Games.

Qualifying, on the 6th August, saw a slight headwind, towards the circle, so thethrowers were to get some small benefit from that. Quite often in stadiumsituations, there is no helpful wind and quite dead air to try to throw long in, sothis was a welcome change. There were two pools of competitors, with a total of41 throwers, all striving to reach the 65m required to make the final. Of these41, 29 managed to throw over 60m, which in itself is a unique number throwingso far. Six throwers threw over 65m, whilst the next six best were also takeninto the 12 man final.

For the first Olympics ever, barring the boycotted Games of 1980, no AmericanDiscus throwers made the final. Indeed, only Germany had two throwersthrough to the final. One competitor Casanas, competing for Spain, is a formerCuban. With an Iranian, an Indian and an Cuban through to the final, the spreadof finalists was a Global representation.

The final the next day saw distances of the highest quality achieved. The windwas again a slight headwind, giving some assistance to those able to exploit it.

The early leader of the event was the Iranian Hadadi, who came close to winninghis country's first ever athletics Gold medal. He has been a world class throwerfor the past two years and has an incredibly fast release velocity, due to thespeed of his right arm strike. Hadadi finished in the silver medal position, butfouled a winning throw, that he protested.

Defending champion Gerd Kanter, who led the qualifying, finished third. He hadnot thrown well, apart from his best throw here. A solid performance though, togain a second Olympic medal. After the Games, Kanter split from his long termcoach.

Well nigh unbeatable over the last two seasons, Germany's Robert Hartingimproved throughout the competition, to finally win by 7cm. His demeanourthroughout the competition was always that of being the expected winner. Thisalong with his competitive ability and physical prowess, looks to dominate theevent for a while yet.

2012 Olympic Games Report

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Men’s Discus

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The competition was won by Robert Harting with a throw of 68.27m, from EhsanHadadi in second with 68.18m, and Gerd Kanter in third with 68.03m. It took63.55m to make the final, (figure 5) and 64.79m to make the top 8, representingone of the highest level Men’s Discus competitions in history. Mid-way throughthe final it began to rain.

Table 2: Summary statistics for Men’s Discus Throw from London 2012 Olympics

Whilst the average age of competitors across the groups did not changesignificantly, the minimum age rises from 19 for all competitors, to 20 forfinalists, 25 for top 8 finishers and 27 for a medal. Furthermore, the oldestcompetitor, Virgilijus Alekna at 40 years of age, finished just out of the medals in4th. This would suggest that Discus Throwers continue to develop as theymature into their late twenties and thirties.

The medallists were all over 196cm tall, with the second tallest competitor,Harting, the eventual winner. However the tallest competitor at 2.07 did notprogress beyond the qualifying rounds. The average weight gradually increasedthroughout the groups as performance level increased, however with the tallestaverage group also being the medallists, BMI was not indicative of performancelevel.

No competitors threw a PB during the Olympics, and only one, Gerd Kanter thebronze medallist, produced an SB. There were 11 competitors in the field withPBs in excess of what was required to medal.

Put Age (y) Height (cm) Weight (kg) BMI(m) Av. Max Min Av. Max Min Av. Max Min Av. Max Min

Medal 68.03 29.00 33 27 197.67 201 196 118.33 130 98 30.25 33.06 25.51

Top 8 64.79 30.38 40 25 195.13 201 187 116.50 130 98 30.65 33.46 24.26

Final 63.55 28.67 40 20 196.00 201 187 116.00 130 98 30.25 33.46 24.26

All 56.20 28.27 40 19 193.53 207 177 113.24 136 79 30.20 36.51 23.33

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MEN'S DISCUS THROW STATISTICSCompetition data and athlete details have been obtained from the IAAF website.Rankings and record information has been taken from the Tilastopaja Website.Historical graphs were provided by Ian Tempest, NUTS.World Record 2012 World Lead IAAF A Standard Automatic Qualifying74.08m 70.66m 65.00m 65.00m

Table 1: Standards for the Men’s Discus Throw

Jurgen Schult holds the Men’s discus World Record with a throw of 74.08m from1986. Robert Harting leads the 2012 lists with 70.66m. Both the IAAF A standardand the automatic qualifying mark for the final were set at 65.00m.

Six men threw the automatic qualifying distance. As with the Hammer, Group Athrew first with Group B following in the same circle later in the morning(10:00am and 11:35am respectively). The twelve places in the final were madeup of six athletes from each group.

Figure 1: Qualifying for Men’s Discus final at past Olympics and WorldChampionships

Figure 2: Distance for 1st and 8th in past Olympics and World Championships

16 2550 Netherl’s SMITH Rutger B 63.0917 1454 Croatia MARIC Martin B 62.8718 3265 USA YOUNG Jason A 62.1819 1049 Australia MARTIN Scott A 62.1420 2188 Jamaica SMIKLE Traves B 61.8521 3207 USA BROOKS Lance B 61.1722 2647 Poland CZAJKOWSKI Przemyslaw B 61.0823 3077 Turkey OLGUNDENIZ Ercument A 60.8724 1087 Austria MAYER Gerhard B 60.8125 1663 Estonia ISRAEL Mart A 60.3426 1586 Egypt EL GHAZALY Omar Ahmed B 60.2627 1670 Estonia TAMMERT Aleksander A 60.2028 1067 Australia WRUCK Julian A 60.0829 1802 GB BUHARI Abdul B 60.0830 1916 Germany MUNCH Markus A 59.9531 3249 USA ROME Jarred B 59.5732 2674 Poland URBANEK Robert A 59.5633 2369 Saudi Ar’a AL-DAWOODI Sultan Mubarak B 59.5434 3141 Ukraine NESTERENKO Mykyta B 59.1735 1823 GB MORSE Brett A 58.1836 1456 Croatia VARGA Roland A 58.1737 1023 Argentina LAURO German A 57.5438 2525 Monten’o FURTULA Danijel B 57.4839 2180 Jamaica MORGAN Jason A 57.4640 1474 Cuba LASTRE Yunio A 57.3341 1227 Brazil JULIAO Ronald B 56.20

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MEN’S DISCUS FINAL & QUALIFYING PERFORMANCES

FinalRk Bib Country Athlete Mark(m)1 1902 Germany HARTING Robert 68.27 2 2083 Iran HADADI Ehsan 68.18 3 1664 Estonia KANTER Gerd 68.03 SB 4 2424 Lithuania ALEKNA Virgilijus 67.38 5 2660 Poland MALACHOWSKI Piotr 67.19 6 1928 Germany WIERIG Martin 65.85 7 1614 Spain CASANAS Yennifer Frank 65.56 8 2063 India GOWDA Vikas 64.79 9 1045 Australia HARRADINE Benn 63.59 10 2542 Netherl’s CADEE Erik 62.78 11 1468 Cuba FERNANDEZ Jorge Y 62.02 12 1826 GB OKOYE Lawrence 61.03

QualifyingRk Bib Country Athlete Grp Mark(m)1 1664 Estonia KANTER Gerd B 66.39 Q 2 1902 Germany HARTING Robert B 66.22 Q 3 1468 Cuba FERNANDEZ Jorge Y B 65.34 Q 4 1826 GB OKOYE Lawrence B 65.28 Q 5 2063 India GOWDA Vikas A 65.20 Q 6 2083 Iran HADADI Ehsan A 65.19 Q 7 2660 Poland MALACHOWSKI Piotr A 64.65 q 8 1928 Germany WIERIG Martin B 64.13 q 9 1045 Australia HARRADINE Benn B 64.00 q 10 2424 Lithuania ALEKNA Virgilijus A 63.88 q 11 1614 Spain CASANAS Yennifer Frank A 63.76 q 12 2542 Netherl’s CADEE Erik A 63.55 q 13 1511 Cyprus PARELLIS Apostolos A 63.4814 1632 Spain PESTANO Mario B 63.4015 2823 Russia PISHCHALNIKOV Bogdan B 63.15


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Men’s Discus

Robert HartingPosition: 1stMark: 68.27Country: Germany

A wide extensive back swing, over awide foot stance. Both arms are heldlong and relaxed at shoulder height.The throw is started with a slowcontrolled turn over to the left. Theright foot lifts off, leaving the weightover the best left leg, the head turns tothe left looking down the still high leftarm. The left foot stays down at therear, pushing off very late, before theright foot lands high in the circlemiddle. The knees pass very close toallow the left foot to land high and veryquickly at the front of the circle. Theupper body stays relaxed as the righthip is quickly rotated to the front, whilstthe left arm goes wide to slow theupper body. From fixed feet, without thelegs fully straightening, the right armstrikes with the whole body facingforward. A solid example of fixed feetthrowing.

Ehsan HadadiPosition: 2ndMark: 68.18Country: Iran

Hadadi utilises a very wide stance, hewinds high on his legs, before droppingvery low on bent knees as he enters theturn. A very flat swing kick by the rightfoot, just off the circle, sees the left legdrive the body up high to the middle,with the upper body piking toward therear. The knees pass close, but the leftfoot lands late and to the left, as theknee stays bent, never straightening tospeed the movement. The right arm isheld well back and the left, thoughopen, is not leading the upper body. Assoon as the left foot touches both legsdrive round and up into a jump release,as the right arm unwinds incrediblyfast. The left leg and arm maintain theleft brace as Hadadi spins and recovershis balance. Hadadi throws with speedand commitment, it almost got him thegreatest prize.

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INDIVIDUAL ANALYSIS

Key To Foot Positions

For the Discus, the feet position of the athletes was taken as an interpolation oftheir throws in the final, to create an average position. The diagrams for all thefinalists are reproduced in this section.

All positions relate to right handed throwers. All the finalists were right handed.

1. Is the position of the right foot when the athlete is settled and ready to begintheir throw.

2. Is the position of the left foot when the athlete is settled and ready to begintheir throw.

3. Is the position and direction of the right foot, when it first lands in the middleof the circle.

4. Is when the left foot lands at the front of the circle.


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Men’s Discus

Piotr MalachowskiPosition: 5thMark: 67.16Country: Poland

A wide base and an extensive wind up,Malachowski barely starts turning thebody before the right foot is lifted off,leaving him slightly off balance andfalling toward the middle. The left armis held shoulder high and passive,whilst the right is held up and wellback. There is a good push off the leftfrom the back and he lands in themiddle wound up and leaning back, Theleft foot lands in a good position, someinches back from the rim at the front.The upper body unwinds vigorously,before the hips have rotated and theright arm strikes with the body still wellback. A jump release finished themovement. Malachowski moves veryfast, which helps mask some of hisflaws, but his athleticism andcompetitiveness still make himsuccessful.

Martin WierigPosition: 6thMark: 65.85Country: Germany

A tall upright thrower, full wind up witharms held shoulder high. The throwstarts with the weight on the balls ofboth feet. As the body turns both feetstay on the ground until the bodyweightis well over the left side and the upperbody facing toward the front. The rightleg lifts off and the left drives off towardthe middle. The right foot drives high tothe middle and lands in front of thecentre line. The knees pass quite widebut the left still lands quickly, but theupper body is already unwinding. Thehips rotate and lift and the right footleaves the ground before fullystraightening. The left side is braced byboth the leg and arm for the arm striketo work against. An active deliveryfinishes the throw. Wierig exhibits avery good technique and promises morefor the future.

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Gerd KanterPosition: 3rdMark: 68.03Country: Estonia

The defending champion starts with avery upright body. Following an easywind up, with both arms held atshoulder height. The legs go bandy asthe body turns and the left foot turns 90degrees and the right foot lifts off into ahigh swing kick. The left stays downthen pushes off. Kanter lands high onthe toe of the right foot in a modelpower position, which is lost as the leftfoot lands late and wat over to the left.Technically the hips and arms work verywell, but the very open stance leavesthe body driving in one direction andthe right arm in another. The legs driveoff the ground into a very active reverseand Kanter recovers near the circlecentre. A season’s best showed that hewas competitive and peaking correctly,only the technique letting him down.

Virgilijus AleknaPosition: 4thMark: 67.38Country: Lithuania

Alekna displayed his usual solidtechnique. His stance is narrow, withthe weight spread over both feet. Hewinds the discus extensively, then turnsthe whole body over to the left on aflexed left knee, The left arm opens, butthe shoulder does not pull away withthe arm. The right leg swing kicks andthe left foots drives off the rear of thecircle. The feet land quickly, inmechanically sound position. The hiprotates round and up, the head is heldneutral and the left arm, which staysopen, flexes and helps maintain thebrace that starts with the left leg. Bothlegs drive off the ground and the rightarm strikes when the chest is square tothe front. Balance after release ismaintained by a full spin of the athlete.Overall a well grooved technique, ideallysuited to such a tall man.


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Men’s Discus

Ben HarradinePosition: 9thMark: 63.59Country: Australia

Harradine uses a standard width stanceat the rear of the circle, with the weighttaken on the balls of the feet. The armsare held out at shoulder height and bothfeet turn toward the left as thebodyweight moves over to the left onentry. The right foot is swing kicked lowtowards the middle, whilst the left staysgrounded until it drives to the front. Thedrive takes the body high to the middlewhere the right foot lands on the centrespot, the left grounds quickly, back fromthe rim. The hips drive well, the rightfoot stays on the ground as the discus inreleased with the upper body square tothe front. The feet are switched toexecute the reverse.

Erik CadeePosition: 10thMark: 62.78Country: Netherlands

Cadee starts his throw, a further 90degrees around to the right, than theother throwers, his right foot is placedback round toward the centre of thecircle. Having seen Cadee throw with astandard technique in the past, I amunable to see that this addition of aquarter turn has improved his throwing,or the stability of his technique.

His power position at the front isawkward, with the bodyweight leaningforward, whilst the hips are pushingback. A jump delivery and rapid armstrike, complete the throw.

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Yennifer Frank CasanasPosition: 7thMark: 65.56Country: Spain

Casanas starts very low at the rear. Theupper body leads the legs into the turn,piking as the weight transfers over tothe left, the right foot picks up early andswing kicks low, then very high to themiddle. The left pushes off and thewhole body id driven very high to themiddle. The right foot lands well in fronton the centre line and the left landswell positioned, just back from the rim.Casanas’ power position is wellwrapped, with the hips rotating beforethe upper body and the legsstraightening to leave the upper bodyfacing the front as the arm strikes. Bothfeet remain grounded until the discus isreleased followed by an active reverse.Casanas threw and competed well, avery fast and capable performer.

Vikas Gowda Position: 8thMark: 64.78Country: India

The throw starts with a wide base, armsin line with the shoulders and the upperbody relaxed. The head, left shoulderand arm move first, pulling the upperbody into the turn before the legs andhips but the weight does still go over tothe left. Gowda stays on the left anddrives well to the circle middle. Theright foot lands to the front of thecentre line, the left landing well insidethe rim. The left arm opens early, butthe hips rotate and lift before the upperbody is turned to the front, the armstrikes against a left braced side in theair and he switches feet to execute thereverse. A competitive performancefrom the USA raised Indian athlete.


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Jorge Y FernandezPosition: 11thMark: 62.02Country: Cuba

At the rear the feet are narrowly spacedwith the discus extensively wound up.The right foot lifts off early, whichdoesn’t effect the bodyweight movingleft, due to the narrow stance. Theupper body opens and leads themovement towards the middle. The leftfoot stays down and drives to the front,the right foot landing well into the fronthalf of the circle. The knees pass veryclosely together and the left foot landsquickly and is lifted off straight away asthe legs and hips drive upward. Theupper body is square to the front as thearm strikes, with the feet high in the air.The reverse is effected by a doublerotation. Fernandez uses a slow relaxedturn, into a very explosive finish at theend.

Lawrence OkoyePosition: 12thMark: 61.03Country: GB & NI

Okoye utilises a standard stance at therear, very deliberately setting up hisposition, Stance and preliminaryswings. Unusually the discus is grippedthroughout the throw, rather than justsitting in the hand. The whole bodyturns as the throw starts, with both feetturning and the bodyweight shifting overto the left leg. The right leg lifts off in alow swing kick whilst the left staysdown and pushes off to the front. Theright foot lands on the centre spot, withthe body wound up, the knees pass widebut the left foot lands displaying a goodpower position. The legs and hips rotatethe body forward into a fixed feetdelivery against a braced left side. Agood performance from the youngestcompetitor in the final.


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Men’s Discus

Documents

2012 Olympic Report Mens Discus v2