The men's discus throw event at the 2000 Summer Olympics as part of the athletics program was held at the Olympic Stadium on Sunday, 24 September and Monday, 25 September. Forty-five athletes from 28 nations competed. The event was won by Virgilijus Alekna of Lithuania, the nation's second victory in the men's discus throw. Lars Riedel of Germany took silver, becoming the 13th man to win multiple discus throw medals. Frantz Kruger earned South Africa's first medal in the event with his bronze.

The qualifying athletes progressed through to the final where the qualifying distances are scrapped and they start afresh with up to six throws. The qualifying distance was 64.00 metres. For all qualifiers who did not achieve the standard, the remaining spaces in the final were filled by the longest throws until a total of 12 qualifiers.

Background

This was the 24th appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics. The top nine finishers from the 1996 Games all returned, along with the last finalist: gold medalist Lars Riedel and sixth-place finisher Jürgen Schult of Germany, silver medalist Vladimir Dubrovshchik and bronze medalist Vasiliy Kaptyukh of Belarus, fourth-place finisher Anthony Washington and twelfth-place finisher Adam Setliff of the United States, fifth-place finisher Virgilijus Alekna and eighth-place finisher Vaclavas Kidykas of Lithuania, seventh-place finisher Vitaliy Sidorov of Ukraine, and ninth-place finisher Alexis Elizalde of Cuba. Schult was the world record holder and had medaled twice before (gold in 1988, silver in 1992). Riedel had won four of the last five world championships; Washington had won the latest. But Alekna had the best results in 2000 so far, hitting the second- and third-best throws to date (Schult's 1986 record still stands as of 2020).

Turkmenistan and Qatar each made their debut in the men's discus throw. The United States made its 23rd appearance, most of any nation, having missed only the boycotted 1980 Games.

Qualification

Each National Olympic Committee was permitted to enter up to three athletes that had thrown 63.50 metres or further during the qualification period. The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress. If an NOC had no athletes that qualified under that standard, one athlete that had thrown 62.00 metres or further could be entered.http://www.trackandfieldnews.com/images/stories/tfn_pdfs/ogqualifying_standards.pdf

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 64.00 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 Australian Eastern Standard Time (UTC+10)

Date Time Round Sunday, 24 September 2000 10:00 Qualifying Monday, 25 September 2000 19:00 Final

Results

Qualifying

Rank Athlete Nation 1 2 3 Distance Notes 1 Lars Riedel 68.15 – – 68.15 2 Frantz Kruger 67.54 – – 67.54 3 Virgilijus Alekna 67.10 – – 67.10 4 Vasiliy Kaptyukh 65.90 – – 65.90 , 5 Dmitriy Shevchenko 62.82 63.09 65.29 65.29 6 Jason Tunks 64.40 – – 64.40 7 Vladimir Dubrovshchik 64.03 – – 64.03 8 Jürgen Schult 63.76 60.97 X 63.76 9 Aleksander Tammert 63.52 61.84 60.90 63.52 10 Adam Setliff X 63.25 – 63.25 11 Anthony Washington 62.82 X X 62.82 12 Michael Möllenbeck 62.30 62.72 61.92 62.72 13 Li Shaojie 62.29 X 59.71 62.29 14 Diego Fortuna 60.12 X 62.24 62.24 15 Aleksandr Borichevskiy 59.78 61.98 61.89 61.98 16 Róbert Fazekas X X 61.76 61.76 17 John Godina 57.67 61.60 X 61.60 18 Frits Potgieter 61.56 60.27 60.83 61.56 19 David Martínez 61.50 X 59.97 61.50 20 Alexis Elizalde 57.75 61.13 59.96 61.13 21 Magnús Aron Hallgrímsson 60.95 58.79 60.03 60.95 22 Jo Van Daele 60.89 60.93 X 60.93 23 Gábor Máté 59.43 60.69 60.86 60.86 24 Frank Casañas 60.84 X 60.79 60.84 25 Libor Malina 59.38 X 60.83 60.83 26 Vitaliy Sidorov 58.32 59.43 60.65 60.65 27 Romas Ubartas 60.43 60.50 X 60.50 28 Robert Weir 57.57 X 60.01 60.01 29 Olgierd Stański 59.31 58.06 X 59.31 30 Vaclavas Kidykas 57.86 58.96 58.09 58.96 31 Ian Winchester 58.61 58.64 X 58.64 32 Kyrylo Chuprynin X 58.38 57.32 58.38 33 Leonid Cherevko 57.63 X 58.32 58.32 34 Dragan Mustapić 53.76 58.10 X 58.10 35 Mickaël Conjungo X 57.85 55.60 57.85 36 Nick Sweeney 56.73 56.24 57.37 57.37 37 Marcelo Pugliese X 53.49 56.30 56.30 38 Glen Smith 56.22 55.31 54.36 56.22 39 Rashid Shafi Al-Dosari X 54.47 53.42 54.47 40 John Menton X 54.21 50.95 54.21 41 Roman Poltoratskiy 45.40 X 47.83 47.83 – Zoltán Kővágó X X X No mark Chary Mamedov X X X No mark Jason Gervais X X X No mark Costel Grasu X X X No mark – Chima Ugwu

Final

Rank Athlete Nation 1 2 3 4 5 6 Distance Notes Virgilijus Alekna 58.55 67.54 68.73 66.64 69.30 64.78 69.30 Lars Riedel 65.18 X 68.50 68.08 67.33 63.87 68.50 Frantz Kruger 67.89 X 68.19 68.06 X 62.72 68.19 AR 4 Vasiliy Kaptyukh 58.93 64.50 67.59 64.42 65.07 66.70 67.59 5 Adam Setliff 60.50 66.02 64.72 65.10 63.10 61.99 66.02 6 Jason Tunks 59.59 64.58 65.35 X 65.80 64.38 65.80 7 Vladimir Dubrovshchik 63.95 65.13 X 64.32 X 60.15 65.13 8 Jürgen Schult X 60.83 63.34 64.41 62.63 61.96 64.41 9 Aleksander Tammert 55.84 59.26 63.25 Did not advance 63.25 10 Michael Möllenbeck 61.19 60.13 63.14 Did not advance 63.14 11 Dmitriy Shevchenko X X 62.65 Did not advance 62.65 12 Anthony Washington X X 59.87 Did not advance 59.87

See also 1997 Men's World Championships Discus Throw (Athens) 1998 Men's European Championships Discus Throw (Budapest) 1999 Men's World Championships Discus Throw (Seville) 2001 Men's World Championships Discus Throw (Edmonton) 2002 Men's European Championships Discus Throw (Munich) 2003 Men's World Championships Discus Throw (Paris)

References

External links Results Official Report