Athletics at the 2000 Summer Olympics – Men's discus throw

The men's discus throw event at the 2000 Summer Olympics as part of the athletics program was held at the Olympic Stadium on Sunday, 24 September and Monday, 25 September.[1] Forty-five athletes from 28 nations competed.[2] The event was won by Virgilijus Alekna of Lithuania, the nation's second victory in the men's discus throw. Lars Riedel of Germany took silver, becoming the 13th man to win multiple discus throw medals. Frantz Kruger earned South Africa's first medal in the event with his bronze.

Video on YouTube Official Video Highlights, winning throw @ 6:25
Men's discus throw
at the Games of the XXVII Olympiad
Pictogram for athletics
VenueANZ Stadium
Dates24 September 2000 (qualifying)
25 September 2000 (final)
Competitors45 from 28 nations
Winning distance69.30
Medalists
1st place, gold medalist(s) Virgilijus Alekna
 Lithuania
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Lars Riedel
 Germany
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Frantz Kruger
 South Africa
← 1996
2004 →

The qualifying athletes progressed through to the final where the qualifying distances are scrapped and they start afresh with up to six throws. The qualifying distance was 64.00 metres. For all qualifiers who did not achieve the standard, the remaining spaces in the final were filled by the longest throws until a total of 12 qualifiers.

Background

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This was the 24th appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics. The top nine finishers from the 1996 Games all returned, along with the last finalist: gold medalist Lars Riedel and sixth-place finisher Jürgen Schult of Germany, silver medalist Vladimir Dubrovshchik and bronze medalist Vasiliy Kaptyukh of Belarus, fourth-place finisher Anthony Washington and twelfth-place finisher Adam Setliff of the United States, fifth-place finisher Virgilijus Alekna and eighth-place finisher Vaclavas Kidykas of Lithuania, seventh-place finisher Vitaliy Sidorov of Ukraine, and ninth-place finisher Alexis Elizalde of Cuba. Schult was the world record holder and had medaled twice before (gold in 1988, silver in 1992). Riedel had won four of the last five world championships; Washington had won the latest. But Alekna had the best results in 2000 so far, hitting the second- and third-best throws to date (Schult's 1986 record still stands as of 2020).[2]

Turkmenistan and Qatar each made their debut in the men's discus throw. The United States made its 23rd appearance, most of any nation, having missed only the boycotted 1980 Games.

Qualification

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Each National Olympic Committee was permitted to enter up to three athletes that had thrown 63.50 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 that had thrown 62.00 metres or further could be entered.[3]

Competition format

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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 64.00 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][4]

Records

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Prior to the competition, 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

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

Schedule

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All times are Australian Eastern Standard Time (UTC+10)

Date Time Round
Sunday, 24 September 2000 10:00 Qualifying
Monday, 25 September 2000 19:00 Final

Results

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Qualifying

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Rank Athlete Nation 1 2 3 Distance Notes
1 Lars Riedel   Germany 68.15 68.15 Q
2 Frantz Kruger   South Africa 67.54 67.54 Q
3 Virgilijus Alekna   Lithuania 67.10 67.10 Q
4 Vasiliy Kaptyukh   Belarus 65.90 65.90 Q, SB
5 Dmitriy Shevchenko   Russia 62.82 63.09 65.29 65.29 Q
6 Jason Tunks   Canada 64.40 64.40 Q
7 Vladimir Dubrovshchik   Belarus 64.03 64.03 Q
8 Jürgen Schult   Germany 63.76 60.97 X 63.76 q
9 Aleksander Tammert   Estonia 63.52 61.84 60.90 63.52 q
10 Adam Setliff   United States X 63.25 63.25 q
11 Anthony Washington   United States 62.82 X X 62.82 q
12 Michael Möllenbeck   Germany 62.30 62.72 61.92 62.72 q
13 Li Shaojie   China 62.29 X 59.71 62.29 SB
14 Diego Fortuna   Italy 60.12 X 62.24 62.24
15 Aleksandr Borichevskiy   Russia 59.78 61.98 61.89 61.98
16 Róbert Fazekas   Hungary X X 61.76 61.76
17 John Godina   United States 57.67 61.60 X 61.60
18 Frits Potgieter   South Africa 61.56 60.27 60.83 61.56
19 David Martínez   Spain 61.50 X 59.97 61.50
20 Alexis Elizalde   Cuba 57.75 61.13 59.96 61.13
21 Magnús Aron Hallgrímsson   Iceland 60.95 58.79 60.03 60.95
22 Jo Van Daele   Belgium 60.89 60.93 X 60.93
23 Gábor Máté   Hungary 59.43 60.69 60.86 60.86
24 Frank Casañas   Cuba 60.84 X 60.79 60.84
25 Libor Malina   Czech Republic 59.38 X 60.83 60.83
26 Vitaliy Sidorov   Russia 58.32 59.43 60.65 60.65
27 Romas Ubartas   Lithuania 60.43 60.50 X 60.50
28 Robert Weir   Great Britain 57.57 X 60.01 60.01
29 Olgierd Stański   Poland 59.31 58.06 X 59.31
30 Vaclavas Kidykas   Lithuania 57.86 58.96 58.09 58.96
31 Ian Winchester   New Zealand 58.61 58.64 X 58.64
32 Kyrylo Chuprynin   Ukraine X 58.38 57.32 58.38
33 Leonid Cherevko   Belarus 57.63 X 58.32 58.32
34 Dragan Mustapić   Croatia 53.76 58.10 X 58.10
35 Mickaël Conjungo   Central African Republic X 57.85 55.60 57.85
36 Nick Sweeney   Ireland 56.73 56.24 57.37 57.37
37 Marcelo Pugliese   Argentina X 53.49 56.30 56.30
38 Glen Smith   Great Britain 56.22 55.31 54.36 56.22
39 Rashid Shafi Al-Dosari   Qatar X 54.47 53.42 54.47
40 John Menton   Ireland X 54.21 50.95 54.21
41 Roman Poltoratskiy   Uzbekistan 45.40 X 47.83 47.83
Zoltán Kővágó   Hungary X X X No mark
Chary Mamedov   Turkmenistan X X X No mark
Jason Gervais   Canada X X X No mark
Costel Grasu   Romania X X X No mark
Chima Ugwu   Nigeria DNS

Final

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Rank Athlete Nation 1 2 3 4 5 6 Distance Notes
  Virgilijus Alekna   Lithuania 58.55 67.54 68.73 66.64 69.30 64.78 69.30
  Lars Riedel   Germany 65.18 X 68.50 68.08 67.33 63.87 68.50
  Frantz Kruger   South Africa 67.89 X 68.19 68.06 X 62.72 68.19 AR
4 Vasiliy Kaptyukh   Belarus 58.93 64.50 67.59 64.42 65.07 66.70 67.59 PB
5 Adam Setliff   United States 60.50 66.02 64.72 65.10 63.10 61.99 66.02
6 Jason Tunks   Canada 59.59 64.58 65.35 X 65.80 64.38 65.80
7 Vladimir Dubrovshchik   Belarus 63.95 65.13 X 64.32 X 60.15 65.13
8 Jürgen Schult   Germany X 60.83 63.34 64.41 62.63 61.96 64.41
9 Aleksander Tammert   Estonia 55.84 59.26 63.25 Did not advance 63.25
10 Michael Möllenbeck   Germany 61.19 60.13 63.14 Did not advance 63.14
11 Dmitriy Shevchenko   Russia X X 62.65 Did not advance 62.65
12 Anthony Washington   United States X X 59.87 Did not advance 59.87

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Athletics at the 2000 Sydney Summer Games: Men's Discus Throw". sports-reference.com. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 15 January 2018.
  2. ^ a b c "Discus Throw, Men". Olympedia. Retrieved 3 November 2020.
  3. ^ http://www.trackandfieldnews.com/images/stories/tfn_pdfs/ogqualifying_standards.pdf[permanent dead link]
  4. ^ Official Report, Results Book for Athletics.
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