2009 World Championships in Athletics – Men's discus throw

The Men's Discus Throw event at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics was held at the Olympic Stadium on August 18 and August 19.

As the only man to throw in excess of seventy metres that season, reigning world and Olympic champion Gerd Kanter of Estonia was the event favourite. Veteran athlete Virgilijus Alekna, the last athlete to beat Kanter in competition, was a strong medal possibility. Olympic silver medallist Piotr Małachowski was another contender, as was German Robert Harting who won silver at the previous world championships. The season had been of a high standard, with a number of athletes throwing over 65 m, including Frank Casañas, Bogdan Pishchalnikov and Zoltán Kővágó.^[1]

On the first day of competition, qualification went smoothly as many of the highest ranked athletes qualified for the final on their first throw, with seven of them passing the automatic qualification mark of 64.50 m. Casañas and Estonia's number two Aleksander Tammert were the only high-profile athletes to be eliminated. Home competitor Harting had the best throw of the day (66.81), and Kővágó and Kanter were the next best qualifiers.^[2]

In the final, Małachowski and Harting started very well on their first throws, with the former taking the lead with a Polish record-breaking throw, while the latter recorded a season's best. The pre-event favourites Kanter and Alekna were unable to challenge the two, as the Estonian took the bronze with his fourth round throw of 66.88 m and the Lithuanian never bettered his first throw of the day (66.36 m) and finished up in fourth place. Consistently throwing better than the rest of the field, Harting and Małachowski battled for the top spot. The Pole improved his lead with 69.15 m in the fifth round, another national record, but Harting took the gold with his final throw of the competition, recording a personal best of 69.43 m.^[3]^[4]

The victory for the home athlete was marred by his controversial comments regarding an initiative by victims of doping in East Germany. Former East German athletes, who had suffered through the state-sponsored doping program in the 1980s, were distributing glasses outside the stadium to encourage people not to "turn a blind eye" to doping. Harting said that he wished his discus would bounce from the ground and hit wearers in the eyes, but he later retracted and apologise for his statement.^[5]^[6]

Medallists

Gold	Robert Harting Germany (GER)
Silver	Piotr Małachowski Poland (POL)
Bronze	Gerd Kanter Estonia (EST)

Records

World record	Jürgen Schult (GDR)	74.08	Neubrandenburg, East Germany	6 June 1986
Championship record	Virgilijus Alekna (LTU)	70.17	Helsinki, Finland	7 August 2005
World leading	Gerd Kanter (EST)	71.64	Kohila Parish, Estonia	25 June 2009
African record	Frantz Kruger (RSA)	70.32	Salon-de-Provence, France	26 May 2002
Asian record	Ehsan Haddadi (IRI)	69.32	Tallinn, Estonia	3 June 2008
North American record	Ben Plucknett (USA)	71.32	Eugene, United States	4 June 1983
South American record	Jorge Balliengo (ARG)	66.32	Rosario, Argentina	15 April 2006
European record	Jürgen Schult (GDR)	74.08	Neubrandenburg, East Germany	6 June 1986
Oceanian record	Benn Harradine (AUS)	66.37	Salinas, United States	22 May 2008

Qualification standards

A standard	B standard
64.50 m	62.50 m

Schedule

Date	Time	Round
August 18, 2009	10:05	Qualification
August 19, 2009	20:10	Final

Results

Qualification

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

Rank	Group	Athlete	Nationality	#1	#2	#3	Result	Notes
1	A	Robert Harting	Germany (GER)	66.81			66.81	Q
2	A	Gerd Kanter	Estonia (EST)	66.73			66.73	Q
3	B	Zoltán Kővágó	Hungary (HUN)	x	65.82		65.82	Q
4	B	Jarred Rome	United States (USA)	60.92	65.51		65.51	Q
5	A	Casey Malone	United States (USA)	65.13			65.13	Q
6	B	Virgilijus Alekna	Lithuania (LTU)	65.04			65.04	Q
7	A	Mario Pestano	Spain (ESP)	65.03			65.03	Q
8	B	Piotr Małachowski	Poland (POL)	64.20	64.48	62.65	64.48	q
9	A	Bogdan Pishchalnikov	Russia (RUS)	62.93	61.09	60.08	62.93	q
10	A	Omar Ahmed El Ghazaly	Egypt (EGY)	62.84	62.09	x	62.84	q
11	B	Gerhard Mayer	Austria (AUT)	62.53	59.33	62.19	62.53	q
12	B	Frantz Kruger	Finland (FIN)	62.29	x	60.45	62.29	q
13	A	Aleksander Tammert	Estonia (EST)	62.24	61.93	59.44	62.24
14	A	Ian Waltz	United States (USA)	x	60.27	62.04	62.04
15	A	Benn Harradine	Australia (AUS)	60.73	61.74	60.79	61.74
16	B	Frank Casañas	Spain (ESP)	x	x	61.10	61.10
17	A	Gaute Myklebust	Norway (NOR)	x	60.80	x	60.80
18	A	Bertrand Vili	France (FRA)	60.68	x	x	60.68
19	B	Erik Cadee	Netherlands (NED)	x	60.64	x	60.64
20	B	Markus Münch	Germany (GER)	60.55	x	59.12	60.55
21	B	Ivan Hryshyn	Ukraine (UKR)	59.93	57.28	x	59.93
22	B	Märt Israel	Estonia (EST)	59.58	x	-	59.58
23	A	Jorge Balliengo	Argentina (ARG)	56.69	55.32	59.19	59.19
24	B	Ahmed Mohamed Dheeb	Qatar (QAT)	55.33	59.16	x	59.16
25	B	Nikolay Sedyuk	Russia (RUS)	x	59.03	58.62	59.03
26	A	Oleksiy Semenov	Ukraine (UKR)	58.78	57.31	x	58.78
27	A	Daniel Schärer	Switzerland (SUI)	58.50	58.23	57.22	58.50
28	B	Germán Lauro	Argentina (ARG)	57.88	x	x	57.88
29	B	Ercüment Olgundeniz	Turkey (TUR)	56.54	x	57.52	57.52
	A	Haidar Nasir	Iraq (IRQ)	x	x	x	NM

Final

Rank	Athlete	Nationality	#1	#2	#3	#4	#5	#6	Result	Notes
	Robert Harting	Germany (GER)	68.25	67.04	67.80	x	67.80	69.43	69.43	PB
	Piotr Małachowski	Poland (POL)	68.77	68.05	67.00	x	69.15	67.33	69.15	NR
	Gerd Kanter	Estonia (EST)	65.91	65.65	x	66.88	66.24	65.45	66.88
4	Virgilijus Alekna	Lithuania (LTU)	66.36	66.32	65.68	64.53	66.24	x	66.36
5	Casey Malone	United States (USA)	63.61	61.59	65.64	64.84	65.98	66.06	66.06
6	Zoltán Kővágó	Hungary (HUN)	x	63.09	62.47	x	65.17	61.69	65.17
7	Bogdan Pishchalnikov	Russia (RUS)	62.03	63.29	63.18	64.26	65.02	x	65.02
8	Gerhard Mayer	Austria (AUT)	62.16	60.49	63.17	x	60.83	x	63.17
9	Omar Ahmed El Ghazaly	Egypt (EGY)	62.13	62.83	62.76				62.83
10	Mario Pestano	Spain (ESP)	62.76	x	62.27				62.76
11	Jarred Rome	United States (USA)	58.48	62.47	x				62.47
12	Frantz Kruger	Finland (FIN)	x	59.77	x				59.77