Athletics at the 2004 Summer Olympics – Men's discus throw

The men's discus throw competition at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens was held at the Olympic Stadium on 21–23 August. It was originally planned to hold the discus throw at the Ancient Olympia Stadium, but it was discovered that the field was not large enough to accommodate the range of modern discus throwers, and would have posed a danger to spectators. As such, it was decided to move the discus throw and to hold the shot put at the ancient stadium, despite the fact that the shot put was not contested at the Ancient Olympic Games.[1]

Men's discus throw at the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad
Venue	Olympic Stadium
Dates	21–23 August
Competitors	39 from 26 nations
Winning distance	69.89 OR
Medalists
Virgilijus Alekna  Lithuania Zoltán Kővágó  Hungary Aleksander Tammert  Estonia

Hungary's Róbert Fazekas had initially finished first in the final, but committed an anti-doping breach for failing to submit a proper urine sample during the drug test and was thereby not allowed to present his gold in the medal ceremony, resulting to his disqualification.[2] Lithuania's Virgilijus Alekna, who originally placed second in the final, eventually defended his Olympic title at the time of the medal ceremony, and was followed by Fazekas' teammate Zoltán Kővágó for the silver and Estonia's Aleksander Tammert for the bronze.[3]

Competition format

Each athlete receives three throws in the qualifying round. All who achieve the qualifying distance progress to the final. If less than twelve athletes achieve this mark, then the twelve furthest throwing athletes reach the final. Each finalist is allowed three throws in last round, with the top eight athletes after that point being given three further attempts.[4]

Schedule

All times are Greece Standard Time (UTC+2)

Date	Time	Round
Saturday, 21 August 2004	09:00	Qualification
Monday, 23 August 2004	20:20	Final

Records

Prior to the competition, the existing World and Olympic records were as follows.

World record	Jürgen Schult (GDR)	74.08 m	Neubrandenburg, East Germany	6 June 1986
Olympic record	Lars Riedel (GER)	69.40 m	Atlanta, United States	31 July 1996

The following records were established during the competition:

Date	Event	Name	Nationality	Result	Record
23 August	Final	Virgilijus Alekna	Lithuania	69.89 m	OR

Results

Qualifying round

Rule: Qualifying standard 64.50 (Q) or at least best 12 qualified (q).

Rank	Group	Name	Nationality	#1	#2	#3	Result	Notes
1	B	Róbert Fazekas	Hungary	63.88	68.10	—	68.10	Q
2	A	Virgilijus Alekna	Lithuania	x	63.80	67.79	67.79	Q
3	A	Aleksander Tammert	Estonia	65.70	—	—	65.70	Q
4	B	Lars Riedel	Germany	64.20	—	—	64.20	Q
5	A	Hannes Hopley	South Africa	62.71	62.50	63.89	63.89	q
6	A	Gabor Mate	Hungary	57.40	62.43	63.41	63.41	q
7	A	Torsten Schmidt	Germany	56.86	60.63	63.40	63.40	q
8	B	Casey Malone	United States	59.99	63.27	61.83	63.27	q
9	B	Vasiliy Kaptyukh	Belarus	63.04	x	62.93	63.04	q
10	B	Frantz Kruger	South Africa	60.91	62.32	x	62.32	q
11	A	Libor Malina	Czech Republic	60.54	x	62.12	62.12	q
12	B	Zoltán Kővágó	Hungary	x	61.91	60.77	61.91	q
13	B	Mario Pestano	Spain	x	x	61.69	61.69
14	A	Jarred Rome	United States	59.35	x	61.55	61.55
15	B	Vikas Gowda	India	61.35	61.39	59.87	61.39
16	A	Jason Tunks	Canada	61.21	60.02	60.34	61.21
17	B	Rutger Smith	Netherlands	x	61.11	x	61.11
18	A	Frank Casañas	Cuba	60.15	60.60	57.27	60.60
19	B	Wu Tao	China	48.96	x	60.60	60.60
20	A	Gerd Kanter	Estonia	x	60.05	x	60.05
21	B	Michael Möllenbeck	Germany	56.42	59.79	x	59.79
22	A	Ian Waltz	United States	58.97	58.55	57.52	58.97
23	B	Savvas Panavoglou	Greece	57.26	58.47	57.62	58.47
24	B	Aliaksandr Malashevich	Belarus	x	57.67	58.45	58.45
25	A	Emeka Udechuku	Great Britain	x	58.41	55.79	58.41
26	B	Aleksandr Borichevskiy	Russia	58.12	58.19	57.86	58.19
27	B	Ercüment Olgundeniz	Turkey	57.13	58.17	x	58.17
28	A	Leonid Cherevko	Belarus	57.98	x	57.89	57.98
29	B	Abbas Samimi	Iran	57.57	x	56.24	57.57
30	B	Lois Maikel Martínez	Cuba	57.18	57.10	x	57.18
31	B	Igor Primc	Slovenia	55.70	56.33	55.43	56.33
32	A	Marcelo Pugliese	Argentina	x	56.06	54.45	56.06
33	A	Vadim Hranovschi	Moldova	53.77	52.30	55.64	55.64
34	B	Omar Ahmed El Ghazaly	Egypt	x	55.53	55.27	55.53
35	A	Dragan Mustapic	Croatia	54.66	x	x	54.66
36	A	Jaroslav Žitňanský	Slovakia	53.30	x	51.87	53.30
37	B	Shaka Sola	Samoa	50.36	51.10	50.97	51.10
	A	Anil Kumar	India	x	x	x	NM
	A	Dmitriy Shevchenko	Russia	x	x	x	NM

Final

Rank	Name	Nationality	1	2	3	4	5	6	Result	Notes
	Virgilijus Alekna	Lithuania	69.89	x	x	x	69.49	x	69.89	OR
	Zoltán Kővágó	Hungary	57.31	66.40	66.03	67.04	58.25	x	67.04
	Aleksander Tammert	Estonia	66.66	x	64.28	63.95	64.04	x	66.66
4	Vasiliy Kaptyukh	Belarus	65.10	59.82	62.88	63.44	64.89	63.63	65.10
5	Frantz Kruger	South Africa	64.34	x	61.01	62.53	x	60.73	64.34
6	Casey Malone	United States	62.80	60.34	x	64.33	62.73	63.65	64.33
7	Lars Riedel	Germany	x	62.80	x	—	—	—	62.80
8	Hannes Hopley	South Africa	60.18	61.99	62.58				62.58
9	Torsten Schmidt	Germany	x	61.18	61.10				61.18
10	Libor Malina	Czech Republic	57.39	x	58.78				58.78
11	Gabor Mate	Hungary	57.02	x	57.84				57.84
	Róbert Fazekas	Hungary	66.39	70.93	69.35	68.92	67.64	—	70.93	DSQ[2]

References

1. "Athletics at the 2004 Summer Olympics". Athens 2004. IAAF. Retrieved 12 February 2015.
2. "Discus champion thrown out of Games after doping breach". ABC News Australia. 25 August 2004. Retrieved 22 April 2014.
3. Hersh, Philip (25 August 2004). "Hungarian Stripped of Discus Title". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 15 February 2015.
4. "Athletics at the 2004 Athens Summer Games: Men's Discus Throw". Athens 2004. Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 15 February 2015.

External links

• Official Olympic Report