Athletics at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Men's discus throw

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Men's discus throw
at the Games of the XXIX Olympiad
Kanter, Gerd.IMG 8513.JPG
Gerd Kanter (2012)
Venue Beijing National Stadium
Dates16 August 2008 (qualifying)
19 August 2008 (final)
Competitors37 from 29 nations
Winning distance68.82
Medalists
Gold medal icon.svg Gerd Kanter
Flag of Estonia.svg  Estonia
Silver medal icon.svg Piotr Małachowski
Flag of Poland.svg  Poland
Bronze medal icon.svg Virgilijus Alekna
Flag of Lithuania.svg  Lithuania
  2004
2012  

The men's discus throw event at the 2008 Summer Olympics took place on 16–19 August at the Beijing National Stadium. [1] Thirty-seven athletes from 29 nations competed. [2] The event was won by Gerd Kanter of Estonia, the nation's first victory in the men's discus throw. Piotr Małachowski took silver to give Poland its first medal in the event. Lithuanian thrower Virgilijus Alekna's bronze made him the third man to win three medals in the sport, adding to his gold medals from 2000 and 2004.

Background

This was the 26th appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics. The returning finalists from the 2004 Games were two-time gold medalist (and 1996 finalist) Virgilijus Alekna of Lithuania, silver medalist Zoltán Kővágó of Hungary, bronze medalist (and 2000 finalist) Aleksander Tammert of Estonia, fifth-place finisher Frantz Kruger of South Africa, sixth-place finisher Casey Malone of the United States, eleventh-place finisher Gábor Máté of Hungary, and Róbert Fazekas (also of Hungary), who had initially won in 2004 but had been disqualified for doping. Alekna had won the 2003 and 2005 world championships as well as the 2000 and 2004 Olympics. The 2007 world champion was Gerd Kanter of Estonia. Alekna and Kanter were favored in Beijing. [3] [2]

The British Virgin Islands made its debut in the men's discus throw. The United States made its 25th appearance, most of any nation, having missed only the boycotted 1980 Games.

Qualification

The qualifying standards were 64.50 m (211.61 ft) (A standard) and 62.50 m (205.05 ft) (B standard). [4] Each National Olympic Committee (NOC) was able to enter up to three entrants providing they had met the A qualifying standard in the qualifying period (1 January 2007 to 23 July 2008). NOCs were also permitted to enter one athlete providing he had met the B standard in the same qualifying period. [5] The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress.

Competition format

The competition used the two-round format introduced in 1936, with the qualifying round completely separate from the divided final. In qualifying, each athlete received three attempts; those recording a mark of at least 64.50 metres advanced to the final. If fewer than 12 athletes achieved that distance, the top 12 would advance. The results of the qualifying round were then ignored. Finalists received three throws each, with the top eight competitors receiving an additional three attempts. The best distance among those six throws counted. [2] [6]

Records

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

World recordFlag of East Germany.svg  Jürgen Schult  (GDR)74.08 Neubrandenburg, East Germany 6 June 1986
Olympic recordFlag of Lithuania.svg  Virgilijus Alekna  (LTU)69.89 Athens, Greece 23 August 2004

No new world or Olympic records were set during the competition.

Schedule

All times are China standard time (UTC+8)

DateTimeRound
Saturday, 16 August 200810:40Qualifying
Tuesday, 19 August 200821:00Final

Results

Qualifying round

Qualification: 64.50 (Q) or at least 12 best performers (q) advance to the final.

RankGroupAthleteNation123DistanceNotes
1A Piotr Małachowski Flag of Poland.svg  Poland 65.94 65.94Q
2A Virgilijus Alekna Flag of Lithuania.svg  Lithuania 65.8465.84Q
3B Rutger Smith Flag of the Netherlands.svg  Netherlands 64.0965.6565.65Q
4B Frank Casañas Flag of Spain.svg  Spain XX64.9964.99Q
5B Gerd Kanter Flag of Estonia.svg  Estonia 59.6564.6664.66Q
6A Bogdan Pishchalnikov Flag of Russia.svg  Russia 62.6863.9364.6064.60Q
7A Mario Pestano Flag of Spain.svg  Spain 64.4261.16X64.42q
8A Robert Harting Flag of Germany.svg  Germany 64.19XX64.19q
9B Rashid Shafi Al-Dosari Flag of Qatar (3-2).svg  Qatar 63.8363.7261.6063.83q
10A Aleksander Tammert Flag of Estonia.svg  Estonia 57.7961.5763.1063.10q
11A Róbert Fazekas Flag of Hungary.svg  Hungary X61.6162.6462.64q
12B Frantz Kruger Flag of Finland.svg  Finland X58.6062.4862.48q
13A Gábor Máté Flag of Hungary.svg  Hungary X55.1562.4462.44
14B Märt Israel Flag of Estonia.svg  Estonia 61.9859.7861.6361.98
15A Dzmitry Sivakou Flag of Belarus (1995-2012).svg  Belarus 59.64X61.7561.75
16A Michael Robertson Flag of the United States.svg  United States 60.9761.64X61.64
17B Ehsan Haddadi Flag of Iran.svg  Iran 61.08X61.3461.34
18B Gerhard Mayer Flag of Austria.svg  Austria 61.32X58.1361.32
19A Casey Malone Flag of the United States.svg  United States 59.48X61.2661.26
20B Ercüment Olgundeniz Flag of Turkey.svg  Turkey 58.9960.83X60.83
21B Zoltán Kővágó Flag of Hungary.svg  Hungary 60.7959.4660.4460.79
22B Vikas Gowda Flag of India.svg  India 59.58X60.6960.69
23A Omar Ahmed El Ghazaly Flag of Egypt.svg  Egypt 59.7158.9560.2460.24
24A Oleksiy Semenov Flag of Ukraine.svg  Ukraine 57.8460.1859.4160.18
25B Ian Waltz Flag of the United States.svg  United States 60.02XX60.02
26A Abbas Samimi Flag of Iran.svg  Iran 58.0159.9258.8559.92
27A Jorge Fernández Flag of Cuba (3-2).svg  Cuba X59.6059.5859.60
28A Jan Marcell Flag of the Czech Republic.svg  Czech Republic 59.52X56.3159.52
29B Martin Marić Civil ensign of Croatia.svg  Croatia 59.25X59.0959.25
30B Jorge Balliengo Flag of Argentina (1861-2010).svg  Argentina 58.7158.82X58.82
31A Benn Harradine Flag of Australia.svg  Australia 58.5557.5057.9158.55
32B Niklas Arrhenius Flag of Sweden.svg  Sweden 56.6458.2256.7758.22
33B Hannes Kirchler Flag of Italy.svg  Italy XX56.4456.44
34A Sultan Mubarak Al-Dawoodi Flag of Saudi Arabia.svg  Saudi Arabia 56.2955.5456.2456.29
35A Vadim Hranovschi Flag of Moldova (3-2).svg  Moldova 56.19X55.7856.19
36B Haidar Nasser Shaheed Flag of Iraq.svg  Iraq 54.19XX54.19
37B Eric Matthias Flag of the British Virgin Islands.svg  British Virgin Islands 47.8750.8753.1153.11

Final

[7]

RankAthleteNation123456DistanceNotes
Gold medal icon.svg Gerd Kanter Flag of Estonia.svg  Estonia 63.4466.3862.7568.82X65.9868.82
Silver medal icon.svg Piotr Małachowski Flag of Poland.svg  Poland 66.4567.8266.9863.9165.78X67.82
Bronze medal icon.svg Virgilijus Alekna Flag of Lithuania.svg  Lithuania X65.7764.4267.79X67.1867.79
4 Robert Harting Flag of Germany.svg  Germany 65.5864.8467.09X66.5167.09
5 Frank Casañas Flag of Spain.svg  Spain 59.5462.1664.4664.1164.9766.4966.49
6 Bogdan Pishchalnikov Flag of Russia.svg  Russia 64.0964.2561.1365.88XX65.88PB
7 Rutger Smith Flag of the Netherlands.svg  Netherlands 64.6165.3164.3664.25X65.3965.39
8 Róbert Fazekas Flag of Hungary.svg  Hungary 62.2563.4362.49XX59.3463.43
9 Mario Pestano Flag of Spain.svg  Spain 60.4662.8463.42Did not advance63.42
10 Rashid Shafi Al-Dosari Flag of Qatar (3-2).svg  Qatar 59.62X62.55Did not advance62.55
11 Frantz Kruger Flag of Finland.svg  Finland 61.9861.8060.71Did not advance61.98
12 Aleksander Tammert Flag of Estonia.svg  Estonia X61.3261.38Did not advance61.38

References

  1. "Olympic Athletics Competition Schedule". IAAF. Archived from the original on 13 September 2008. Retrieved 2008-08-04.
  2. 1 2 3 "Discus Throw, Men". Olympedia. Retrieved 4 November 2020.
  3. "Discus champion thrown out of Games after doping breach". ABC News Australia. 25 August 2004. Retrieved 22 April 2014.
  4. "Entry Standards - The XXIX Olympic Games - Beijing, China - 8/24 August 2008". IAAF. Archived from the original on 13 September 2008. Retrieved 2008-08-04.
  5. "Entry Standards - The XXIX Olympic Games - Beijing, China - 8/24 August 2008". IAAF. Archived from the original on 13 September 2008. Retrieved 2008-08-04.
  6. Official Report, Results Book for Athletics.
  7. "Iaaf.org - Olympic Games 2008 - Results 08-19-2008 - Discus Throw M Final". Archived from the original on 2008-08-20. Retrieved 2008-08-19. Retrieved 2008-08-19.