When he is not occupied with discus, Lithuanian athlete Mykolas Alekna, whose father is a two-time Olympic and world champion discus thrower, likes to go fishing.
File – Mikolas Alekna from Lithuania celebrates (AP) {{^userSubscribed}} {{/userSubscribed}} {{^userSubscribed}} {{/userSubscribed}}
Among his quickly increasing pitching web, his latest catches stand out. This broke the longest standing males’s world file in monitor and subject.
Unlock unique entry to Indian General Election tales solely on HT App. Downloading now!
The 21-year-old ran a whopping 74.35 on the Oklahoma Slows Series World Invitational on Sunday, initially measured at 74.41 meters, which was later revised and remains to be topic to World Athletics’ regular approval course of. He threw the meter and turned the discus world on its head. A mark that lasted for 38 years. The effort broke the earlier file of 74.08 meters set in 1986 by two-time Olympic medalist Jurgen Schulte, who was representing East Germany on the time. Born in 2002, Mykolas’s closest title has additionally been pushed down to 3rd place on the all-time checklist, his father Virgil Alekna.
So when Mikolas spoke in an interview with World Athletics final 12 months about his ambition to in the future be like his “legendary pitcher” father and “possibly even higher than him,” he wasn’t kidding. Ta.
{{^userSubscribed}} {{/userSubscribed}} {{^userSubscribed}} {{/userSubscribed}}
Although he was definitely absent from the season-opening, low-key pitching event in Oklahoma State, the day earlier than he had witnessed one other extraordinary pitching efficiency (Cuba’s Yaime Perez pitched in 1989). Since then, she has thrown the longest of any feminine athlete on the planet with a throw of 73.09 meters). Mikolas produced an unbelievable collection of six throws over 70 meters, with the teenager setting a private greatest on his first throw and breaking the file on his fifth. Overall, he ranked excessive on the checklist of greatest pitchers. His first 72.21 meters moved him to tenth place. The third run was 72.89 meters, which positioned him in 4th place. The fifth run made historical past with a distance of 74.35 meters.
Some of the longest standing world information in monitor and subject – Marita Koch (girls’s 400m, 1985), Jarmila Kratochvilova (girls’s 800m, 1983), Yuri Sediyk (males’s hammer throw, 1986) — was established within the Eighties and is a drug-tainted file. Period in sports activities. The 1986 Schulte mark remained untouched for nearly 40 years. Virgil, a three-time Olympic and four-time World Championship medalist who set a private better of 73.88 meters in 2000, was shut behind. In a contest the place athletes usually attain their greatest late of their careers, my son is the one one to take action on the age of 21.
{{^userSubscribed}} {{/userSubscribed}} {{^userSubscribed}} {{/userSubscribed}}
Despite the deep roots of self-discipline within the Alekna household, Mikolas did not all the time need to discuss his father’s discus throwing. Mikolas’ older brother Martinas can also be a top-level discus thrower. Mikolas was into soccer and excessive leap till he was 16, so it took him some time to seek out his chops for throwing the discus. By the best way, it turned out that the rationale for his conversion was his legs.
“I’ve grown lots and my ft have gotten greater. I began getting slower, so I moved to discus,” Mikolas advised World Athletics. “I believe I used to be fairly gradual. My mother and father simply needed me to play sports activities. It did not matter what sort of sport it was, simply do one thing.”
{{^userSubscribed}} {{/userSubscribed}} {{^userSubscribed}} {{/userSubscribed}}
His progress over the previous few years has been constant and extremely quick. His season greatest jumped from 57.68 factors in 2020, 63.52 factors in 2021, and 69.81 factors in 2022 to 71.00 factors in 2023, when he gained the bronze medal on the Budapest World Championships and have become the European U-23 champion. .
His father remains to be his “massive idol” and spends his most enjoyable holidays away from his occupation fishing. “I take into consideration the discus on a regular basis,” he mentioned. “But when you begin fishing, you overlook all the pieces.”
If he continues to win glory on the Paris Olympics, the monitor and subject world will undoubtedly welcome him rapidly.
Get all the most recent IPL 2024 information and stay cricket scores, WPL schedule and WPL factors desk associated updates on Hindustan Times web site and app.
Source hyperlink