2008 Summer Olympics / Athletics - Discus Throw (Men)

sport	athletics
discipline	Discus throw
gender	Men
place	Beijing National Stadium
Attendees	37 athletes from 29 countries
Competition phase	August 16 and 19, 2008
Medalist
gold	Gerd Kanter ( EST )
silver	Piotr Małachowski ( POL )
bronze	Virgilijus Alekna ( LTU )

The discus throw at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing was played on August 16 and 19, 2008. 37 athletes took part.

The Olympic champion was the Estonian Gerd Kanter . The silver medal was won by Piotr Małachowski from Poland . Bronze went to Virgilijus Alekna from Lithuania.

Current title holders

Olympic champion 2004	Virgilijus Alekna ( Lithuania )	69.89 m	Athens 2004
World Champion 2007	Gerd Kanter ( Estonia )	68.94 m	Osaka 2007
European champion 2006	Virgilijus Alekna ( Lithuania )	68.67 m	Gothenburg 2006
Pan American Champion 2007	Michael Robertson ( USA )	59.24 m	Rio de Janeiro 2007
Central America and Caribbean champions 2008	Jorge Fernández ( Cuba )	58.60 m	Cali 2008
South America Champion 2007	Germán Lauro ( Argentina )	57.12 m	São Paulo 2007
Asian champion 2007	Ehsan Hadadi ( Iran )	65.38 m	Amman 2007
Africa Champion 2008	Hannes Hopley ( South Africa )	56.98 m	Addis Ababa 2008
Oceania Champion 2008	Daniel Kilama ( New Caledonia )	48.06 m	Saipan 2008

Existing records

World record	74.08 m	Jürgen Schult ( GDR )	Neubrandenburg , Germany	August 25, 1991
Olympic record	69.89 m	Virgilijus Alekna ( Lithuania )	Athens Final , Greece	August 23, 2004

qualification

The qualification was carried out in two groups. The qualification distance for the direct entry into the final was 64.50 m. Since only six 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, 62.48 m had to be achieved to take part.

Group A

August 16, 2008, 10:40 am

space	Surname	nation	1st attempt	Second attempt	3. Attempt	Expanse	annotation
1	Piotr Małachowski	Poland	65.94 m	-	-	65.94 m
2	Virgilijus Alekna	Lithuania	65.84 m	-	-	65.84 m
3	Bogdan Pishchalnikov	Russia	62.68 m	63.98 m	64.60 m	64.60 m
4th	Mario Pestano	Spain	64.62 m	61.16 m	x	64.62 m
5	Robert Harting	Germany	64.19 m	x	x	64.19 m
6th	Aleksander Tammert	Estonia	57.79 m	61.57 m	63.10 m	63.10 m
7th	Róbert Fazekas	Hungary	x	61.61 m	62.64 m	62.64 m
8th	Gábor Máté	Hungary	x	55.15 m	62.44 m	62.44 m
9	Dzmitry Sivakou	Belarus	59.64 m	x	61.75 m	61.75 m
10	Michael Robertson	United States	60.97 m	61.64 m	x	61.64 m
11	Casey Malone	United States	59.48 m	x	61.26 m	61.26 m
12	Omar Ahmed El Ghazaly	Egypt	59.71 m	59.95 m	60.24 m	61.26 m
13	Oleksiy Semenov	Ukraine	57.84 m	60.18 m	59.41 m	60.18 m
14th	Abbas Samimi	Iran	58.01 m	59.92 m	58.85 m	59.92 m
15th	Jorge Fernández	Cuba	x	59.60 m	59.58 m	59.60 m
16	Jan Marcell	Czech Republic	59.52 m	x	56.31 m	59.52 m
17th	Benn Harradine	Australia	58.55 m	57.50 m	57.91 m	58.55 m
18th	Sultan Mubarak al-Dawoodi	Saudi Arabia	56.29 m	55.54 m	56.24 m	56.29 m
19th	Vadim Hranovschi	Moldova	56.19 m	x	55.87 m	56.19 m

61.34 m are not enough for Iranian Ehsan Hadadi to take part in the finals

Group B

August 16, 2008, 12:05 p.m.

space	Surname	nation	1st attempt	Second attempt	3. Attempt	Expanse	annotation
1	Rutger Smith	Netherlands	64.09 m	65.65 m	-	65.65 m
2	Yennifer Frank Casañas	Spain	x	x	64.99 m	64.99 m
3	Gerd Kanter	Estonia	59.65 m	64.66 m	-	64.66 m
4th	Rashid Shafi Al-Dosari	Qatar	63.83 m	63.72 m	61.60 m	63.83 m
5	Frantz Kruger	Finland	x	58.60 m	62.48 m	62.48 m
6th	Mark Israel	Estonia	61.98 m	59.78 m	61.63 m	61.98 m
7th	Ehsan Hadadi	Iran	61.08 m	x	61.34 m	61.34 m
8th	Gerhard Mayer	Austria	61.32 m	x	58.13 m	61.32 m
9	Ercüment Olgundeniz	Turkey	58.99 m	60.83 m	x	60.83 m
10	Zoltán Kővágó	Hungary	60.79 m	59.46 m	60.44 m	60.79 m
11	Vikas Gowda	India	59.58 m	x	60.69 m	60.69 m
12	Ian Waltz	United States	60.02 m	x	x	60.02 m
13	Martin Marić	Croatia	59.25 m	x	59.09 m	59.25 m
14th	Jorge Balliengo	Argentina	58.71 m	58.82 m	x	58.82 m
15th	Niklas Arrhenius	Sweden	56.64 m	58.22 m	56.77 m	58.22 m
16	Hannes Kirchler	Italy	x	x	56.44 m	56.44 m
17th	Haidar Nasir	Iraq	54.19 m	x	x	54.19 m
18th	Eric Matthias	British Virgin Islands	47.87 m	50.87 m	53.11 m	53.11 m

final

August 19, 2008, 9:00 p.m.

Twelve athletes had qualified for the final, six of them by qualifying distance and another six by their placements. Two Estonians and two Spaniards were represented, as well as one participant each from Germany, Finland, Lithuania, Qatar, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia and Hungary.

Two discus throwers had won the major international titles in recent years. Virgilijus Alekna from Lithuania was Olympic champion in 2004 , world champion in 2005 and European champion in 2006 . But at the 2007 World Championships , Estonian Gerd Kanter had triumphed, while Alekna had to be content with fourth place. Other medal candidates were the German vice world champion from 2007 Robert Harting, the Dutch World Cup third from the previous year Rutger Smith as well as the second Estonian Aleksander Tammert as Olympic third from 2004, World Cup fourth from 2005 and European Championship third from 2006.

In the final the Pole Piotr Małachowski took the lead with 66.45 m. He had already achieved the greatest distance of all participants in qualifying. Harting was second with 65.48 m in front of Smith - 64.61 m - and the Russian Bogdan Pishchalnikow - 64.09 m. The second round changed the ranking significantly. Malachowski improved to 67.82 m and thus consolidated his top position. Kanter reached 66.38 m, which brought him to second place. Alekna also moved past Harting to third with 65.77 m. Smith threw 65.31 m, which meant fifth place. In the third round Harting countered with 67.09 m and was second behind Malachowski in front of Kanter, Alekna and Smith.

In round four, the first of the final of the eight best throwers, Kanter took the lead with 68.82 m. With 67.79 m, Alekna came within three centimeters of the second-placed Malachowski and thus passed Harting again. Pishchalnikov scored 65.88 m and displaced Smith in sixth. The penultimate round brought no changes. With regard to the medal ranks, everything remained the same in the last series of tests as it did after round four. The Spaniard Yennifer Frank Casañas was the only participant to improve again. With 66.49 m that brought him fifth place.

World champion Gerd Kanter was thus Olympic champion before Piotr Małachowski and the 2000 and 2004 Olympic champion Virgilijus Alekna. Robert Harting was fourth ahead of Yennifer Frank Casañas. Sixth and seventh place went to Bogdan Pishchalnikov and Rutger Smith, who repeated his seventh place from the shot put three days earlier.

Gerd Kanter was the first gold medalist for Estonia in the discus throw .

space	Surname	nation	1st attempt	Second attempt	3. Attempt	4th attempt	5th attempt	6th attempt	Bottom line	annotation
1	Gerd Kanter	Estonia	63.44 m	66.38 m	62.75 m	68.82 m	x	65.96 m	68.82 m
2	Piotr Małachowski	Poland	66.45 m	67.82 m	66.98 m	63.91 m	65.76 m	x	67.82 m
3	Virgilijus Alekna	Lithuania	x	65.77 m	64.42 m	67.79 m	x	67.18 m	67.79 m
4th	Robert Harting	Germany	65.58 m	64.84 m	67.09 m	x	x	66.51 m	67.09 m
5	Yennifer Frank Casañas	Spain	59.54 m	62.16 m	64.46 m	64.11 m	64.97 m	66.49 m	66.49 m
6th	Bogdan Pishchalnikov	Russia	64.09 m	64.25 m	61.13 m	65.88 m	x	x	65.88 m	PB
7th	Rutger Smith	Netherlands	64.61 m	65.31 m	64.36 m	64.25 m	x	65.39 m	65.39 m
8th	Róbert Fazekas	Hungary	62.25 m	63.43 m	62.49 m	x	x	59.34 m	63.43 m
9	Mario Pestano	Spain	60.46 m	62.84 m	63.42 m	not in the final of the eight best throwers			63.42 m
10	Rashid Shafi Al-Dosari	Qatar	59.62 m	x	62.55 m				62.55 m
11	Frantz Kruger	Finland	61.98 m	61.80 m	60.71 m				61.98 m
12	Aleksander Tammert	Estonia	x	61.32 m	61.38 m				61.38 m

• 

  Silver medalist Piotr Malachowski, Poland

• 

  Virgilijus Alekna from Lithuania wins bronze

• 

  The German Robert Harting is fourth in the final

• 

  The Spanish Olympic Fifth Yennifer Frank Casañas

• 

  Seventh in the shot put and seventh in the discus throw : Rutger Smith from the Netherlands

• 

  Frantz Kruger from South Africa, who is now starting for Finland, has to settle for eleventh place this time

• 

  The Estonian Aleksander Tammert is twelfth in the Olympic Games

Web links

• SportsReference discus , accessed June 12, 2018
• Results on the IAAF website, accessed June 12, 2018
• Official Report of the XXVIIIth Olympiad, Results Athletics , English / French (PDF, 3054 KB), accessed on June 12, 2018

Video

• Athletics - Men's Discus Final - Beijing 2008 Summer Olympic Games , published August 20, 2015 on youtube.com, accessed June 12, 2018

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Campeonato CAC de Atletismo 2008 on athlecac.org, accessed on June 12, 2018
2. ↑ Campeonato Sudamericano de Atletismo 2007 on athlecac.org, accessed on June 12, 2018
3. ↑ 17th Asian Athletics Championship 2007 ( Memento of the original from July 14, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at athleticsasia.org (PDF, 417 KB), accessed June 12, 2018 
4. ↑ Oceania Area Championships - 25/06/2008 to 28/06/2008 on athletics-oceania.com (PDF, 130 KB), accessed on June 12, 2018
5. ↑ IAAF world records, discus throw men , accessed on June 12, 2018