After the discus throwers exploits in Ramona , we were expecting a memorable men discus world championship in Tokyo …. we got it …but not really like we wanted . It’s quite fun to play with the wind and have fast circles , it’s not more so funny when you have to deal with a pouring rain and a slippery circle transformed into a skating ring . In fact we had a competition which was some sort of compromise between artistic ice skating and racing car aquaplaning , in spite of the rather pathetic efforts of the organisers to try to run a fair competition . In these conditions , each athlete has its own tricks to cope more or less successfully with the situation. But, at the end , the best ones of the day fully deserved their medals . The most impressive was Daniel STAHL , who seemed to be enjoying himself throwing in the rain when all the other competitors were muddling through and fouling most of their attempts . Ignoring the conditions , STAHL was improving at each round of the competition and in the 6th attempt delivered an incredible 70.47m throw to win the gold from the big favourite Mykolas ALEKNA who could not improve on his 67.54m 2nd attempt which gave him the Silver medal. Another good surprise was the 3rd place of the Samoan Alex ROSE 5th attempt at 66.96m . The first medal even won in a world athletic championship by an athlete from the Pacific Islands . Rose took the podium from another Oceania thrower , the Australian Matt DENNY , also one of the big favourite after his 74m+ Ramona throw , but only 4th in Tokyo with 65.57m . The NZL thrower Connor BELL could not do better than the top 10 with 59.97m. The 8th finalist was only at 63.07m and the 12th qualified for the final made it with 64.99m .The 2 French throwers were quite disappointed and did not make it to the top 12 final :Lolassonn DJOUHAN finishes 18th  with a little 63.13m , far , very far from his recent French record over 70m  .  The other, Jordan GUEHASEIM (a 68m PB) was even worse and finished 36e , last before last with ….56.40m !

.

Connor BELL (Left)Matthew DENNY  (Under)

Available documents : Visitors : 1- Vid 1 Discus Men final Part 1 Presentation 12 finalists 2-Vid 2 Discus Men Final Part 2 Aquaplaning warm up !

Members : 3-Vid 3 Discus Men final Part 3 Rounds 1 and 2 -4-Vid 4 Discus Men final Part 4 Rounds 3 and 4  -5-Vid 5 DiscusMen Final Part 5 Rounds 5 and 6