2004 Summer Olympics / Athletics - Discus Throw (Men)

sport	athletics
discipline	Discus throw
gender	Men
Attendees	39 athletes from 27 countries
Competition location	Athens Olympic Stadium
Competition phase	August 21, 2004 (qualification) August 23, 2004 (final)
Medalist Virgilijus Alekna ( Lithuania )   Zoltán Kővágó ( Hungary )   Aleksander Tammert ( Estonia )

The men's discus throw at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens was played on August 21 and 23, 2004 in the Athens Olympic Stadium. 39 athletes took part.

Olympic champion was Virgilijus Alekna from Lithuania. He won ahead of the Hungarian Zoltán Kővágó and the Estonian Aleksander Tammert .

With Lars Riedel , Torsten Schmidt and Michael Möllenbeck , three German participants started. Riedel and Schmidt made it to the final and finished in seventh and ninth place. Möllenbeck was eliminated in the qualification.
Athletes from Switzerland, Austria and Liechtenstein were not among the participants.

Current title holders

Olympic Champion 2000	Virgilijus Alekna ( Lithuania )	69.30 m	Sydney 2000
World Champion 2003		69.69 m	Paris 2003
European Champion 2002	Róbert Fazekas ( Hungary )	68.83 m	Munich 2002
Pan American Champion 2003	Jason Tunks ( Canada )	63.70 m	Santo Domingo 2003
Central America and Caribbean champions 2003	Yania Ferrales ( Cuba )	59.07 m	St. George’s 2003
South American Champion 2003	Marcelo Pugliese ( Argentina )	57.44 m	Barquisimeto 2003
Asian champion 2003	Wu Tao ( People's Republic of China )	61.43 m	Manila 2003
African champion 2004	Frantz Kruger ( South Africa )	63.85 m	Brazzaville 2004
Oceania Champion 2002	Chris Mene ( Samoa )	50.52 m	Christchurch 2002

Existing records

World record	74.08 m	Jürgen Schult ( GDR )	Neubrandenburg , Germany	August 25, 1991
Olympic record	69.40 m	Lars Riedel ( Germany )	Atlanta Final , USA	July 31, 1996

Remarks:

• All times are based on Athens local time ( UTC + 2 ).
• All widths are given in meters (m).

doping

Originally, the Hungarian Róbert Fazekas was ahead with a width of 70.93 m after the final and was considered an Olympic champion for a short time. He then spent many hours doing his doping test and was unable to get the urine test despite the large amounts of fluids he consumed. The inspectors in charge prevented Fazekas from starting a carefully prepared scam using a plastic bag with foreign urine attached to his genital area. As a result of his cheating, the Spaniard Mariano Pestano was denied participation in the final. In addition, the South African Hannes Hopley would have had three more attempts in the final of the eight best throwers.

qualification

August 21, 2004, 10:45 am

The qualification was carried out in two groups. The qualification distance for the direct entry into the final was 64.50 m. Since only two athletes reached this distance (highlighted in light blue), the final field was filled with the next best athletes from both groups to twelve participants (highlighted in light green). Ultimately, 61.91 m had to be achieved to take part.

Group A

space	Surname	nation	1st attempt	Second attempt	3. Attempt	Expanse	annotation
1	Virgilijus Alekna	Lithuania	x	63.80	67.79	67.79
2	Aleksander Tammert	Estonia	65.70	-	-	65.70
3	Hannes Hopley	South Africa	62.71	62.50	63.89	63.89
4th	Gabor Mate	Hungary	57.40	62.43	63.41	63.41
5	Torsten Schmidt	Germany	56.86	60.63	63.40	63.40
6th	Libor Malina	Czech Republic	60.54	x	62.12	62.12
7th	Jarred Rome	United States	59.35	x	61.55	61.55
8th	Jason Tunks	Canada	61.21	60.02	60.34	61.21
9	Frank Casañas	Cuba	60.60	60.15	57.27	60.60
10	Gerd Kanter	Estonia	x	60.05	x	60.05
11	Ian Waltz	United States	58.97	58.55	57.52	58.97
12	Emeka Udechuku	Great Britain	x	58.41	55.79	58.41
13	Leonid Cherewko	Belarus	57.98	x	57.89	57.98
14th	Marcelo Pugliese	Argentina	x	56.06	54.45	56.06
15th	Vadim Hranovschi	Moldova	53.77	52.30	55.64	55.64
16	Dragan Mustapic	Croatia	54.66	x	x	54.66
17th	Jaroslav Žitňanský	Slovakia	53.30	x	51.87	53.30
ogV	Anil Kumar	India	x	x	x		without space
	Dmitri Shevchenko	Russia	x	x	x

Group B

space	Surname	nation	1st attempt	Second attempt	3. Attempt	Expanse	annotation
1	Lars Riedel	Germany	64.20	-	-	64.20
2	Casey Malone	United States	59.99	63.27	61.83	63.27
3	Wassil Kapzjuch	Belarus	63.04	x	62.93	63.04
4th	Frantz Kruger	South Africa	62.32	60.91	x	62.32
5	Zoltán Kővágó	Hungary	x	61.91	60.77	61.91
6th	Mariano Pestano	Spain	x	x	61.69	61.69	would have been eligible after Fazekas' disqualification in the final
7th	Vikas Shive Gowda	India	61.35	61.39	59.87	61.39
8th	Rutger Smith	Netherlands	x	61.11	x	61.11
9	Wu Tao	People's Republic of China	48.96	x	60.60	60.60
10	Michael Möllenbeck	Germany	56.42	59.79	x	59.79
11	Savvas Panavoglou	Greece	57.26	58.47	57.62	58.47
12	Aleksandr Malashevich	Belarus	x	57.67	58.45	58.45
13	Alexandr Boritschewski	Russia	58.12	58.12	57.86	58.12
14th	Ercüment Olgundeniz	Turkey	57.13	58.17	x	58.17
15th	Abbas Samimi	Iran	57.57	x	56.24	57.57
16	Lois Maikel Martinez	Cuba	57.18	57.10	x	57.18
17th	Igor Primc	Slovenia	55.70	56.33	55.43	56.33
18th	Omar Ahmed El Ghazaly	Egypt	x	55.53	55.27	55.53
19th	Shaka Sola	Samoa	50.36	51.10	50.97	51.10
DOP	Róbert Fazekas	Hungary

final

August 23, 2004, 8:20 pm

Twelve athletes had qualified for the final, only two of them by qualifying distance, another ten by their placements. All three Hungarians, two Germans, two South Africans and one participant each from Estonia, Lithuania, the Czech Republic, Belarus and the United States were represented. Due to the subsequent disqualification of the Hungarian Róbert Fazekas, however, only eleven throwers were included in the ranking.

The outcome of the major championships and international comparisons in recent years suggested a close competition. The greatest chances were given to Virgilijus Alekna from Lithuania. He was the 2000 Olympic champion , reigning world champion , vice world champion from 2001 and vice European champion from 2002 . His main rivals were Fazekas, who was disqualified after the competition, and Lars Riedel, a five-time world champion and Olympic champion from Germany from 1996 , who, however, repeatedly plagued by injuries, was no longer in the best form of previous years. Other candidates for top places were the Belarusian Cup -Third Vasil Kapzjuch, the German Michael Möllenbeck as WM -Fünfter and WM -Dritter 2001, the South African Frantz Kruger and the Este Aleksander Tammert. Möllenbeck, however, got stuck in the qualification.

In the final, favorite Alekna showed his skills in the first round. With 69.89 m he set a new Olympic record and had thus taken the clear lead. Tammert was second with 66.66 m ahead of Kapzjuch - 65.10 m - and Kruger - 64.34 m. With this, these four throwers had already achieved their best distances for this competition. But there was another change in this intermediate result. After he had already thrown 66.40 m with his second throw, the Hungarian Zoltán Kővágó scored 67.04 m in round four, moving him up to second behind Alekna. The Lithuanian achieved another 69.49 m in his fifth litter. With that he confirmed his class again after three invalid attempts. His last litter was then again invalid. Riedel was able to qualify for the final of the top eight, but did not appear again due to an injury. Virgilius Alekna repeated his Olympic victory in Sydney . Zoltán Kővágó won the silver medal, bronze went to Aleksander Tammert. Wassil Kapzjuch came fourth ahead of Frantz Kruger and Casey Malone from the United States. Lars Riedel finished seventh in the end.

space	Surname	nation	1st attempt	Second attempt	3. Attempt	4th attempt	5th attempt	6th attempt	Bottom line	annotation
1	Virgilijus Alekna	Lithuania	69.89 OR	x	x	x	69.49	x	69.89	OR
2	Zoltán Kővágó	Hungary	57.31	66.40	66.03	67.04	58.25	x	67.04
3	Aleksander Tammert	Estonia	66.66	x	64.28	63.95	64.04	x	66.66
4th	Wassil Kapzjuch	Belarus	65.10	59.82	62.88	63.44	64.89	63.63	65.10
5	Frantz Kruger	South Africa	64.34	61.01	x	62.53	x	60.73	64.34
6th	Casey Malone	United States	62.80	60.34	x	64.33	62.73	63.65	64.33
7th	Lars Riedel	Germany	x	62.80	x	-	-	-	62.80
8th	Hannes Hopley	South Africa	60.18	61.99	62.58	not in the final of the eight best throwers			62.58	would be wg. Fazekas' disqualification. in the final d. best eight
9	Torsten Schmidt	Germany	x	61.18	61.10				61.18
10	Libor Malina	Czech Republic	57.39	58.78	58.78				58.78
11	Gabor Mate	Hungary	57.02	x	57.84				57.84
DOP	Róbert Fazekas	Hungary

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  Gold medalist Virgilijus Alekna from Lithuania

• 

  Silver medalist Zoltán Kővágó, Hungary

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  Bronze medalist Aleksander Tammert, Estonia

• 

  The South African Frantz Kruger finished fifth in the final

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  The German Lars Riedel - here at a soccer game - was Olympic seventh

Web links

• SportsReference Discus Throw , accessed May 1, 2018
• Results on the IAAF website, accessed on May 1, 2018
• Official Report of the XXVIIIth Olympiad, Results Athletics , English / French (PDF, 3054 KB), accessed on May 1, 2018

Video

• Discus Throw Mens Olympics 2004 Athens , published April 19, 2011 on youtube.com, accessed May 1, 2018

Individual evidence

1. ^ Pan American Games on gbrathletics.com, accessed May 1, 2018
2. ↑ Central American and Caribbean Championships (Men) on gbrathletics.com, accessed May 1, 2018
3. ^ South American Championships (Men) on gbrathletics.com, accessed May 1, 2018
4. ↑ Asian Championships on gbrathletics.com, accessed May 1, 2018
5. ↑ African Championships on gbrathletics.com, accessed May 1, 2018
6. ↑ Oceania Championships on gbrathletics.com, accessed May 1, 2018
7. ↑ IAAF world records, discus throw men , accessed on May 1, 2018
8. ↑ ^{a b} Exchange of body fluids , In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung April 30, 2004, accessed on May 1, 2018