Olympic bronze medallist Matthew Denny has kickstarted his Diamond League title defence in commanding fashion, unleashing a bomb of 68.97m in the final round to take victory in the Men’s Discus at the Doha Diamond League overnight.
Denny (QLD, Dale Stevenson) wasted no time asserting himself, launching 67.33m in the opening round to take the lead in challenging wind conditions. With the field narrowed to a Final-3 showdown, the Allora product stood tall against Sweden’s Olympic champion Daniel Stahl and Slovenian powerhouse Kristian Ceh, sealing the deal with his biggest throw of the night.
“I was very happy out there tonight. The goal at the moment is doing whatever is required to win,” Denny said.
“I didn’t know what to expect from myself tonight having come off a heavy training block and getting off the plane, and it’s always a weird dynamic when you go into that last round in the lead and then have to throw first, but I was able to go out there and get my best mark of the night and that’s all I can ask for.”
Stahl fouled his final attempt into the netting, while Ceh, the 2022 world champion, fell short with 66.40m in the last round handing Denny the win to just weeks after recording the the second-furthest throw in history at 74.78m in Roma, Oklahoma in April.
“It was pretty tough coming home after that competition if I’m honest. That 74, it levelled me. My first session back, I felt like I forgot how to throw, I was so fatigued,” Denny said.
“There were a lot of emotions in achieving that mark but then being pipped [by Mykolas Alekna bettering the world record once more with 75.65m] but we had to do some training to set us up for the next six weeks.
“There’s momentum there but I didn’t know what to expect today in regards to distance and whether it would be enough, in terms of whether the boys would be out to prove a point to me and some of the other guys who competed in Ramona, but it was all about doing what I needed to do to win and having the mentality to bring the fight to them.”
Flying the flag for Australia’s track athletes, Cara Feain-Ryan (QLD, Ben Norton) bookended the night in the Women’s 3000m Steeplechase, finishing 12th in 9:38.07 as Kenya’s Faith Cherotich claimed the final victory of the meet with a world leading time of 9:05.08. The Diamond League is the world’s premier athletics circuit and sits in the top tier of World Athletics one-day meets, offering athletes significant prize money and world ranking points. The fourth leg continues on Sunday, May 25 in Rabat, Morocco.
By Sascha Ryner, Australian Athletics
Posted: 17/5/2025
