The men's

discus throw The discus throw (), also known as disc throw, is a track and field event in which an athlete throws a heavy disk (mathematics), disc—called a discus—in an attempt to mark a farther distance than their competitors. It is an classical antiqui ...

event at the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Na ...

took place on 16–19 August at the

Beijing National Stadium The National Stadium (), also known as the Bird's Nest (), is an 80,000-capacity stadium in Beijing. The stadium was jointly designed by architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron from Basel-based architecture team Herzog & de Meuron, p ...

. Thirty-seven athletes from 29 nations competed. The event was won by

Gerd Kanter Gerd Kanter (born 6 May 1979) is a retired Estonian discus throw The discus throw (), also known as disc throw, is a track and field event in which an athlete throws a heavy disc—called a discus—in an attempt to mark a farther distance th ...

of Estonia, the nation's first victory in the men's discus throw.

Piotr Małachowski Piotr Małachowski (Polish pronunciation: ; born 7 June 1983) is a Polish retired discus thrower, two-time silver medalist at the 2008 Summer Olympics and 2016 Summer Olympics. His personal best throw is 71.84 metres, ranks him fifth in all-ti ...

took silver to give Poland its first medal in the event. Lithuanian thrower

Virgilijus Alekna Virgilijus Alekna (; 13 February 1972) is a Lithuanian former discus thrower and politician. He won medals at the 2000, 2004 and 2008 Olympics, including two golds. After retiring from athletics, Alekna was elected to the national parliament, t ...

's bronze made him the third man to win three medals in the sport, adding to his gold medals from 2000 and 2004.

Background

This was the 26th appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics. The returning finalists from the 2004 Games were two-time gold medalist (and 1996 finalist)

of Lithuania, silver medalist Zoltán Kővágó of Hungary, bronze medalist (and 2000 finalist)

Aleksander Tammert Aleksander Tammert (born 2 February 1973) is an Estonian discus thrower. Athletics career Tammert competed at the 2004 Olympics and originally finishing fourth, but as gold medal winner Róbert Fazekas was disqualified, Tammert received the bro ...

of Estonia, fifth-place finisher

Frantz Kruger Frantz Kruger (born 22 May 1975 in Kempton Park, South Africa) is a South African born Finnish discus thrower who won the Olympic bronze medal in 2000. He is also a double African champion. His personal best throw of 70.32 metres, achieved i ...

of South Africa, sixth-place finisher

Casey Malone Casey Malone (born 6 April 1977 in Wheat Ridge, Colorado) is an American discus thrower. His personal best is 68.49 metres, achieved in June 2009 in Fort Collins, Colorado Fort Collins is a home rule municipality that is the county seat and ...

of the United States, eleventh-place finisher Gabor Mate of Hungary, and

Róbert Fazekas Róbert Fazekas (born 18 August 1975 in Szombathely) is a Hungarian discus thrower, who won gold in the 2002 European Championships and silver in the 2003 World Championship. He finished first in the 2004 Summer Olympics, but was later disqua ...

(also of Hungary), who had initially won in 2004 but had been disqualified for doping. Alekna had won the 2003 and 2005 world championships as well as the 2000 and 2004 Olympics. The 2007 world champion was

of Estonia. Alekna and Kanter were favored in Beijing. The British Virgin Islands made its debut in the men's discus throw. The United States made its 25th appearance, most of any nation, having missed only the boycotted 1980 Games.

Qualification

The qualifying standards were 64.50 m (211.61 ft) (A standard) and 62.50 m (205.05 ft) (B standard). Each

National Olympic Committee A National Olympic Committee (NOC) is a national constituent of the worldwide Olympic movement. Subject to the controls of the International Olympic Committee, NOCs are responsible for organizing their people's participation in the Olympic Games ...

(NOC) was able to enter up to three entrants providing they had met the A qualifying standard in the qualifying period (1 January 2007 to 23 July 2008). NOCs were also permitted to enter one athlete providing he had met the B standard in the same qualifying period. The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress.

Competition format

The competition used the two-round format introduced in 1936, with the qualifying round completely separate from the divided final. In qualifying, each athlete received three attempts; those recording a mark of at least 64.50 metres advanced to the final. If fewer than 12 athletes achieved that distance, the top 12 would advance. The results of the qualifying round were then ignored. Finalists received three throws each, with the top eight competitors receiving an additional three attempts. The best distance among those six throws counted.Official Report, Results Book for Athletics.

Records

Prior to the competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows. No new world or Olympic records were set during the competition.

Schedule

All times are

China standard time The time in China follows a single standard time offset of UTC+08:00 (eight hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time), even though the country spans almost five geographical time zones. The official national standard time is called ''Beijing Tim ...

(

UTC+8 UTC+08:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +08:00. With an estimated population of 1.708 billion living within the time zone, roughly 24% of the world population, it is the most populous time zone in the world, as well as a ...

)

Results

Qualifying round

Qualification: 64.50 (Q) or at least 12 best performers (q) advance to the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

Final

Retrieved 2008-08-19.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Athletics At The 2008 Summer Olympics - Men's Discus Throw Athletics at the 2008 Summer Olympics Discus throw at the Olympics Men's events at the 2008 Summer Olympics