by Alfonz Juck
Mykolas Alekna broke the world record in the discus on April 14, 2024, with his sixth throw of 74.35m, breaking Jurgen Schult’s 37-year-old record. On Sunday, Mykolas made history in Ramona, Oklahoma, with his series of six throws over 70 meters.
The search for the perfect conditions is part of the discus thrower. For many years, I recall many discus throwers going to Salinas, California, for the Ed Adams Invitational and the fantastic throwing conditions in Salinas. John Van Reenen of South Africa broke the WR for the discus in 1974.
Now, the throwing culture visits Ramona, Oklahoma, and on Saturday, Jaime Perez threw the farthest throw for a women’s discus thrower since 1989!
Mykolas Alekna took the silver medal in 2022 in Eugene, Oregon. In 2023, Mykolas Alekna took the bronze medal in Budapest at 21. I look forward to the battle in Paris in August 2024 with Kristjan Ceh and Daniel Stahl.
RAMONA (USA, Apr 14): 21-year-old Mykolas Alekna of Lithuania broke the oldest men’s world record in the discus throw on the second day of the Oklahoma Throws Series World Invitational (WACT Bronze). The reigning European champion and two-time World medallist threw 74.35m in the fifth series and added 27cm to the previous world best of 74.08 achieved by Jürgen Schult of the German Democratic Republic in 1986. Before throwing the record, the son of two-time Olympic champion Virgilijus Alekna improved his previous best twice in the first and third series, thus showing six successful 70m+ attempts. Alekna’s series was (72.21 – 70.32 – 72.89 – 70.51 – 74.41 – 70.50).
Not only did Mykolas Alekna set the WR, but he finally bettered the family record held by his dad Virgilijus Alekna of 73.88m, now #3 All-time. pic.twitter.com/Lk7JGhldOU
— Beau Throws (@beau_throws) April 14, 2024
Other throwers also took advantage of the superb wind conditions at the Millican Field, achieving some personal bests. Jamaica’s Roje Stona finished second, improved to 69.05, and got Paris standard, over Germany’s World U20 silver medallist Mike Sosna, who also went over Paris standard and added more than 3m to his previous best to 68.96. The title defender, Alex Rose of Samoa, finished fourth (68.20) ahead of Connor Bell, who improved the NR for New Zealand to 68.10 (also Paris standard), and Andrew Evans (67.50). Seventh, Dallin Shurts also improved significantly to 66.58, and an unbelievable depth of the competition is proved by the fact that 20 of 25 competing throwers surpassed the 60m barrier. Daniel Haugh produced 79.03 in the hammer throw, the second-best mark of the season behind Aliaksandr Shymanovich of Belarus, winning over Netherlands’s Denzel Comenentia (77.73).
WORLD RECORD
The oldest men’s world record in athletics has been broken 🔥
Mykolas Alekna has just thrown an astonishing 74.41m in the men’s discus 🇱🇹
He takes down Jürgen Schult’s mark of 74.08m from 1986 💥pic.twitter.com/3CejuqudpF
— AW (@AthleticsWeekly) April 14, 2024
BERLIN (GER): Speaking on losing his world record in the discus, Jürgen Schult said: “I woke up my wife this morning with the words: you now have a former world record-holder at home. I had 38 years to prepare for it. There were some who could have made it, such as Virgilijus Alekna, Gerd Kanter, or Robert Harting. The conditions were sometimes not right, but now everything came together. I immediately congratulated Mykolas Alekna. That was a really strong performance; you have to acknowledge that, including the series with six 70-meter throws. I never managed that in competition.” From Leichtathletik.de.
RAMONA (USA): “It was clear after Mykolas’s first attempt that it would be a world record,” said Mantas Jusis, the coach of Mykolas Alekna. “When they started to measure the fifth throw and I heard the record numbers, the emotions were very good. The whole Aleknas family has such a tradition because Virgilijus used to be the boss of the house with 73.88m, so now he is no longer the first in the house; he is still second, and maybe he will stay third [23-years old brother Martynas is 67m thrower].
