Matthew Denny (born 2 June 1996) is an Australian athlete specialising in the discus throw. He qualified for the

Tokyo 2020 Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the 1 ...

and competed in the final having thrown 65.13 m in his Men's discus throw qualification. He came very close to a medal, throwing 67.02 m which was just 0.05 m less than the bronze medalist, Lukas Weißhaidinger of Austria.

Early years

Denny grew up in the small town of

Allora Allora is a rural town and locality in the Southern Downs Region, Queensland, Australia. In the , the locality of Allora had a population of 1,223 people. Geography Allora is on the Darling Downs in south-eastern Queensland, Australia, by ro ...

(population 1000), located 60 km outside Toowoomba and 150 km south-west of

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. He had plenty of space to throw things. For example, in Grade 1 at primary school he threw bean bags as shot puts and vortexes as javelins. His main focus, though, until grade 8 or 9, was rugby league. Denny was one of eight siblings and just wanted to be as good as his rugby-playing brothers. In his teens Denny turned his attention to athletics and built a homemade discus circle on his family's rural property. In 2013, he won the World Under 18 Youth Championships discus title and then came fourth at the 2014 Under 20 World Junior Championships. He then won a silver medal at the

2015 Summer Universiade ) , Nations participating = 143 , Athletes participating = 12,885 , Events = 272 in 21 sports , Opening ceremony = , Closing ceremony = , Officially opened by = Park Geun-hye , Athlete's Oath = Kim Seong-yeon and Kim Kuk-young , Judge's Oath = K ...

Achievements

In April 2016, Denny won the national discus title with a throw of 60.47m and the hammer title with 68.44m. He became just the second athlete in the near 100-year history of the event to win this double and the first since Keith Pardon in 1953 – 63 years earlier. Denny represented his country in the discus at the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics ( pt, Jogos Olímpicos de Verão de 2016), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad ( pt, Jogos da XXXI Olimpíada) and also known as Rio 2016, was an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 20 ...

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without qualifying for the final. Denny then competed at the

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games, often referred to as the Friendly Games or simply the Comm Games, are a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930, and, with the exce ...

trials in February 2018. With just 14 hours separating the hammer and discus events, he required just one valid hammer throw to claim the title and automatic Commonwealth Games selection. Denny also won the discus. With selection in both events, he became the second Australian athlete, and first in 68 years, to compete in both events at the Commonwealth Games, following Keith Pardon who competed in the same pair at the 1938 and 1950 Empire Games. In February 2020 in

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, Denny threw a personal best of 65.47m. In March 2021 he won the national title with 63.88m, but still remained short of the Olympic standard. In June 2021 on the

Gold Coast Gold Coast may refer to: Places Africa * Gold Coast (region), in West Africa, which was made up of the following colonies, before being established as the independent nation of Ghana: ** Portuguese Gold Coast (Portuguese, 1482–1642) ** Dutch G ...

, Queensland he qualified with a 68cm personal best of 66.15m which moved him from fifth to third Australian all-time. His personal best in discus is 67.02m set in Tokyo in 2021. His personal best in the hammer throw is 74.88m set in Gold Coast in 2018.

International competitions

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Denny, Matthew 1996 births Living people Australian male discus throwers Australian male hammer throwers Athletes (track and field) at the 2016 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2018 Commonwealth Games Sportspeople from Toowoomba Olympic athletes for Australia Universiade medalists in athletics (track and field) Commonwealth Games medallists in athletics Commonwealth Games silver medallists for Australia Universiade silver medalists for Australia Australian Athletics Championships winners FISU World University Games gold medalists in athletics (track and field) Medalists at the 2015 Summer Universiade Medalists at the 2019 Summer Universiade Athletes (track and field) at the 2020 Summer Olympics 21st-century Australian people Medallists at the 2018 Commonwealth Games Sportsmen from Queensland