Jürgen Schult, who held the world discus record for 38 years, states that what is not forbidden is allowed, writes Pekka Holopainen.
Pekka Holopainen sports reporter
In 2004, the antique Olympic Stadium in the center of the city was planned as the discus throwing arena for the Athens Olympic Games. However, it was found to be too tight for the elite-level limpwhiskers in terms of spectator safety. In the big stadium, the Olympic gold was hung for the second time by Lithuania Virgil Aleknan around the neck, after colorful doping testing stages.
When the double winner’s son just turns 22 in September Mykolas Alekna stepped into the puck rink in Oklahoma, USA on Sunday, the lack of space that faced his father in Greece didn’t really become a problem. The open prairie opened up in every direction as far as the eye could see, the headwind battered the thrower in a village competition-like event With the power of 21 seconds.
Poika-Alekna didn’t look the perfect gift horse in the mouth, and GDR Jürgen Schultin a little under 38-year-old ME moved to wait for the ratification procedure and filing by the umbrella organization World Athletics.
Not a spectacle
Part of the athletics community strongly and understandably questioned whether the ME made under these circumstances could be valid for ratification. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but undeniably, for example David Rudishan The 800-meter ME run at the London Olympics was born in a somewhat more spectacular milieu.
Oklahoma’s pitching position reminded me of a pitcher Tuomas Seppänen The legal murder experienced in 2016, when two Iranian throwers “overtook” a Finn stranded on the beach from the Rio Games in a Belarusian potato field. In the Olympic Games, the men’s true level was revealed.
After this, the umbrella organization took a new step to eradicate result manipulation, and there is nothing to indicate that Alekna’s result would not be ratified. An optical measurement with measuring tape verification had been set up for the field, and Alekna gave a doping sample, the green color of which is always a condition of ME.
Ramona would have been able to throw into the optimal headwind in all situations, because there are enough rings for every start. This is completely typical in discus throwing.
Similar ones optimal conditions were built On June 6, 1986, on the open field of Neubrandenburg, Jürgen Schult: 74.08 was the oldest world record in men’s athletics. Among the former countries, the Soviet Union is now haunting the men’s ME statistics, while on the women’s side, both the GDR, the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia are still haunting.
On the eve of his career, Schult befriended Virgilius Alekna, 12 years younger, and he knows the family well. Urheilu caught up with Schult on Monday and he showed the antics of a great sportsman.
– I am very happy for Mykolas. I never thought my record would last this long. I’m happy to give it up.
Schult approached Oklahoma’s special conditions pragmatically.
– Everyone can have whatever opinion they want about the competition, but if it is in accordance with the rules, it is in accordance with the rules. I’m not saying you can’t throw the world record in a big indoor stadium, but I know it’s very difficult, said Schult, who has only thrown more than 70 meters twice in his career.
A confusing young ME man
The essence of the sport is described by the fact that Schult threw nine medals in his career, the longest in the 1988 Seoul Olympic final with 68.82. It was the 10th longest throw of his career.
– What is especially great is how young Mykolas is. Typically, a discus thrower is at his or her best until both sides of their 30s.
Schult achieved his last competition medal at the age of almost 39 in 1999. Three years after that, he participated in the ME throw of Alekna junior, who was born on the equipment side. The Jürgen Schult Ultimate Spin puck made by the Danish company Denfi came off the Lithuanian’s hand on the prairie.
Imre Nemeth and Miklos Nemeth. Verner Järvinen and Matti Järvinen. Charles Jenkins and Charles Jenkins Jr. In it, the father-son pairs who achieved Olympic gold in athletics.
When the men’s puck final is over in Paris on August 7, Alekna may join the club.
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