Jamaica’s Stona attains Olympic discus mark
ROJE Stona became the third Jamaican man to achieve the qualifying mark in the men’s discus throw on Sunday after he produced a personal best 69.05m for second place on the second day of the Oklahoma Throws Series World Invitational, put on by Seal Throwing Club, Ramona, Oklahoma.
Stona surpassed his previous best 68.64m set in May last year that qualified him for the World Championships in Budapest, Hungary. His effort on Sunday puts him in the company of Ralford Mullings (69.89m) and Traves Smikle (67.83m) as the Jamaican men who have gone over the automatic qualifying distance of 67.20m.
A majestic world record throw of 74.41m by Mykolas Alekna of Lithuania highlighted the two-day meet which is a World Athletics Continental Tour Silver event.
Alekna, the son of 2004 Olympic champion Virgilijus Alekna, broke the 38-year-old world record of 74.08m set by Jurgen Schult of the then German Democratic Republic. Alekna’s throw saw him take over the world lead from Mullings.
Alekna put on a throwing clinic, going over 70.00m in all six rounds. He claimed the world record in the fifth round and also had throws of 72.89m and 72.21m.
After his heroics a week earlier at the same venue when he became the second-best Jamaican man in the event, Mullings could only manage 65.29m for 10th place after a slow start, finishing one place ahead of compatriot Chad Wright who had a season’s best 65.00m.
Stona, who represented University of Arkansas at the NCAA Indoor Championships in March, got his new personal best in the first round, had a 68.05m throw in the fifth round, and ended with 67.88m. Also on Sunday, Jamaica’s World Championships representative Nayoka Clunis opened her hammer throw season with 67.14m for third place behind Erin Reese (69.59m) and Stamatia Scarvelis (68.31m).
It was Clunis’s second-best opening throw, only behind the 70.68m she threw last year at the Virginia Challenge in Charlottesville.
Saturday’s first day saw a mammoth personal best 73.09m in the women’s discus throw by former Cuban representative Yaime Perez, the ninth-best effort of all times and the longest throw in the world since 1989 when Ilke Wyludda of the then German Democratic Republic threw 74.56m at Neubrandenburg in then East Germany.