Men's discus throw at the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad | ||||||||||
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Venue | Olympic Stadium | |||||||||
Dates | 21–23 August | |||||||||
Competitors | 39 from 26 nations | |||||||||
Winning distance | 69.89 OR | |||||||||
Medalists | ||||||||||
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Athletics at the 2004 Summer Olympics | ||
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Track events | ||
100 m | men | women |
200 m | men | women |
400 m | men | women |
800 m | men | women |
1500 m | men | women |
5000 m | men | women |
10,000 m | men | women |
100 m hurdles | women | |
110 m hurdles | men | |
400 m hurdles | men | women |
3000 m steeplechase | men | |
4 × 100 m relay | men | women |
4 × 400 m relay | men | women |
Road events | ||
Marathon | men | women |
20 km walk | men | women |
50 km walk | men | |
Field events | ||
Long jump | men | women |
Triple jump | men | women |
High jump | men | women |
Pole vault | men | women |
Shot put | men | women |
Discus throw | men | women |
Javelin throw | men | women |
Hammer throw | men | women |
Combined events | ||
Heptathlon | women | |
Decathlon | men | |
Wheelchair races | ||
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.
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.
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]
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]
Prior to the competition [update] , 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.
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 |
Rule: Qualifying standard 64.50 (Q) or at least best 12 qualified (q).
Rank | Group | Athlete | Nation | 1 | 2 | 3 | Distance | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
B | Róbert Fazekas | Hungary | — | 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 |
Rank | Athlete | Nation | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | Distance | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Virgilijus Alekna | Lithuania | 69.89 OR | X | X | X | 69.49 | X | 69.89 | OR | |
Zoltán Kővágó | Hungary | 57.31 | 66.40 | 66.03 | 67.04 | 58.25 | X | 67.04 | ||
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 | — | DPG [3] |
The 2004 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad, were a summer multi-sport event held in Athens, the capital city of Greece, from 13 to 29 August 2004. A total of 10,625 athletes from 201 countries represented by National Olympic Committees participated in these games, competing in 301 events in 28 sports. Kiribati and Timor Leste competed for the first time in these Olympic Games.
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Hungary competed at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, from 13 to 29 August 2004. Hungarian athletes have competed at every Summer Olympic Games in the modern era, except the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp, and the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles because of the Soviet boycott. The Hungarian Olympic Committee sent a total of 209 athletes to the Games, 119 men and 90 women, to compete in 20 sports. Water polo and handball were the only team-based sports in which Hungary had its representation in these Olympic Games. There was only a single competitor in road cycling and mountain biking.
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Virgilijus Alekna is a Lithuanian former discus thrower and politician. He won medals at the 2000, 2004 and 2008 Olympics, including two golds.
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