WE HAD A banner April. Two World Records — men’s discus and pole vault — in events on the Olympic program by the month’s third Saturday. I’ll also not disregard Peres Jepchirchir’s 2:16:16 women-only marathon WR, but wonder, was that one almost overdue this many years into the super-shoes epoch? A fine run it was, in any case, for the defending Olympic champion.
Mondo? What’s there to say? Magnifique! Last ’23 outdoor meet, WR. First ’24 outdoor meet, WR. He felt on in Xiamen and seized the day. 20-5½ (6.24), first attempt. No touch on the bar.
Height over the bar? What’s your read from the video? 2 inches? Close to 3? Good grief!
Though pole vault technique is the ultimate multi-factorial chain of movements, a sequence of such complexity it defies verbal description, it was reported afterwards the Puma spikes Duplantis wore feature a new “claw” at the toe-end identical to a protuberance on Karsten Warholm’s shoes. Did the claw make Mondo incrementally faster on the runway? Maybe. All perfectly legal and above board, of course.
And then there was Mykolas Alekna, first bombing long at Cal’s Edwards Stadium and then into the recordbook in the wind tunnel that is Ramona, Oklahoma. The kid’s just 21. He broke the longest-standing men’s record, Jürgen Schult’s from ’86.
As Alekna’s coach Mo Saatara put it to me a few days before Ramona, “He’s a very explosive athlete. Super, his coordination is great. He has a lot of throwing power and his throwing — I don’t know, there’s not too many people on earth that can do that, that have that kind of ability.”
He showcased it on the plains, with remarkable consistency, before a small yet boisterous audience that included none other than another great throws WR holder, Ryan Crouser.
Throws University put together a video edit of the Lithuanian’s afternoon that’s well worth a watch. You can check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKUIaUGEU94.
Saatara assures that, Alekna, young though he is, has perspective. What will matter most this season will be arriving in Paris prepared to produce a stadium heave like the 234-5 (71.46) sixth-round blast with which Daniel Ståhl captured World Champs gold last summer.
Yet conditions in Ramona — heir to venues like Antelope Valley in decades past and Maui more recently — were remarked upon. Surely many share the view of a reader who emailed me.
”Well… It happened. Alekna set a WR at the Ramona meet… The wind looked to be perfect. Yaimé Pérez also had a best by ~4m (73.09).
“I’m OK with having a competition like this in the most favorable conditions. I think it’s good for the sport, but marks should not count for record purposes.
It’s amazing to see on social media how people with my position on this are called out as haters for calling this a wind-assisted mark, which it surely is. What’s next? Are discus throwers going to seek out competitions with favorable wind & downhill slopes for the field? I know there are standards for [slope] 🙂… but why for that & not wind?”
That’s a more than fair question. It could apply to the javelin, as well, and the vault. Surely World Athletics rulesmakers have asked it of themselves. I made a few inquiries. Got no definitive answers.
Methinks it boils down to physics and logistics. Addressing the discus specifically, how and where would you take the wind measurement? Starting when for each throw? For what duration?
We know right-quartering breezes are the right-handed thrower’s friend, but how would you define “record ineligible” wind direction and velocity?
For my money, truly distorting wind conditions — which are encountered commonly in the sprints — are rare enough for discus comps I’m not going to worry much about it. Events like Ramona are good for the sport. Alekna and his competitors all know to take the number with a grain of salt.
Let the best thrower win. I’m happy not to overthink stuff once in a while — and to coexist with those of an opposite point of view.
