A few years ago, discus was about to be thrown out of the Diamond League. The discipline came back to athletics' finer room, the Diamond League, and has some really strong profiles.
Now it is clear that the world's best discus thrower will compete at the BAUHAUS-galan on July 2. The BAUHAUS-galan has appointed both world champion Christian Ceh, Slovakia and Lithuanian Mykolas Alekna. Alekna, who this weekend pulled away the discus a full 71.00 meters at competitions in Berkeley, USA. Together with Daniel Ståhl and Simon Pettersson, it will be a superb field in discus at this year's BAUHAUS-galan.
All of them have done over 70 meters at some point in the past year. It is only Simon who has not done over 71 meters as he "only" threw 70.42 meters when he surprisingly won the Swedish Championship last year in Norrköping. The year when Christian Ceh was the first to throw over 70 meters (70.02) at the Stockholms Stadion. With the help of the good stadium winds, there is a good chance that we will see a new record again this year. Maybe over 71 or even over the magical 72-meter limit. The limit that only 3 throwers have ever passed.
Jurgen Schult (Germany) who holds the world record 74.08, Virgilijus Alekna (Mykolos' father) 73.88 and Gerd Kanter (Estonia) 73.38. The fourth best thrower of all time is Daniel Ståhl with his personal best 71.86.
Many of the throwers will make their season debuts at the Diamond League competition in Doha this Friday, May 5. Two of them fly directly from the national team camp in Portugal. Simon Pettersson and Daniel Ståhl.
- I am happy to compete in front of the home crowd at the Stockholm Olympic Stadium. The atmosphere will be mighty as usual. Hopefully Simon and I can get some good throws already this week in Doha's Diamond League competition and get a good momentum for the whole season, says Daniel, the Olympic champion to the BAUHAUS-galan.
- It's been a bit up and down this winter but the last few weeks have been better. I am looking forward to the start of the season in Doha and I feel that the discus will be a very interesting event this summer. I am very curious to see what the other throwers will bring to the competition arena this summer and I will do my best to challenge them, says SImon Pettersson to the BAUHAUS-galan.
