The second Alekna aiming for the Paris Olympics: “The beginning of the year is quite good” | Sports

It was Martyn’s second victory this year out of as many possible ones, while Paulina’s personal record was improved by almost 2 meters (the old one was 49.23 m), the Lithuanian Athletics Federation (LLAF) writes.

M. Alekna, who is aiming for a place in the Paris Olympic Games, started the season powerfully. On Tuesday, the discus thrower won the competition in Spain (63.99 m), and when he returned to Lithuania, he left no hope for his competitors.

Armandas Miliauskas (56.10 m) and Aleksas Abromavičius (56.04 m) who remained in the second and third places were overtaken by almost 6 meters. True, the winner was not satisfied with the result demonstrated in the Lithuanian long throw championship:

“I would rate it as average, nothing spectacular. Simple competition, maybe a little stronger competitors were missing to make it more interesting to participate. Compared to last season, the beginning of this year is quite good (in the first competition of 2023, the disc flew 58.68 m – author’s post). 64 m in the first start is a really gratifying result.”

It was last year that the lightweight athlete took a big step forward, when he threw the tool 67.23 m in the competition in Latvia and fulfilled the standard of the European Championship. In addition, even in eight starts, the result exceeded the 62 m mark. According to the athlete, there is no secret to the jump in results – everything was achieved through hard work.

“I would like more stability, I was hoping to throw 64-65 in this competition as well.” The wind was definitely not the strongest, maybe not from that direction. We still have a week of training and then I have two serious competitions. Vienna will be followed by the Bronze Round in Tenerife, followed by the Diamond League round in Morocco (May 19). Mykolas (Alekna) and Andrius (Gudžius) will also be there, it’s three Lithuanians, it’s fun”, – the champion discussed expectations and the upcoming starts.

M. Alekna, who does not yet have a guaranteed ticket to the Olympic Games in August, is actively monitoring the rating system. According to the latest data, the Lithuanian is in 32nd place, and exactly 32 athletes will go to Paris in the discus throw event.

“Getting to the Olympic Games is the main goal. The goal is normative (67.20 m), in every competition I believe that I can reach it. In the ranking system, I rose a little after the competition in Spain, now I’m on the edge. I think I will move up after the aforementioned next competition. In “Diamond League” it is important how much I drop because there are many points to be earned. In 64-65, they would really give a lot”, the winner of the competition shared current events and discussed this year’s goals.

A persistent and dynamic fight took place in the women’s discus throw sector. P. Stuglytė, who won the gold medal, was just 2 centimeters ahead of the second-placed Sonata Rudytė (51.02 m), who also improved her personal record. The third place in the competition was taken by Eglė Zarankaitė (49.95 m). It was the latter who was the leader after the first three shots, but the opponents’ fourth attempts drastically changed the position.

“I always aim to improve my personal best, and the final place is not that important. The most important thing is to show the best version of yourself. After a long time, because the results were stagnant, I finally managed to climb 50m – I’m very happy and I don’t plan to stop here. I hope for even better results this season”, said P. Stuglytė, who started in the second competition this year. The first start was not so successful, because at the European Throwing Cup held 2 months ago, the discus flew with the best attempt of 39.38 m.

Already in 2021 the athlete who threw the discus near the 49 m mark did not hide that the stagnation of the results was influenced by the former coach. However, now the athlete is trained by the legendary discus thrower Vaclovs Kidykas, who helps improve the nuances of technique:

“Results stopped while living in Vilnius. They were similar for 3-4 years. It was bad coaching, of course it’s never just the coach’s fault, but in this case I just wasn’t coached. Maybe the coach himself didn’t really care. However, after finishing school, I had the opportunity to go to Kaunas, there was a new coach, and the results started to improve.

Now the whole technique has changed, more digging into it. We worked on the discus throw all winter, I had two camps, of course there were various diseases. For example, right before the camp, facial paralysis struck, there were also colds, but we still worked hard with the coach and polished our technique. We were looking for the most suitable option.”

The athlete, who has not yet applied for the European Championship and Olympic Games this summer, says that this year is transitional, since the most important start awaits next year (European U23 Championship):

“Now it is important to work on the technique, add strength and speed. If you don’t have good technique, it doesn’t matter if you have a lot of speed and strength – you won’t throw far. In addition, one of the goals is to break the 50 m barrier, which we managed to do today. This season is not very important, it is transitional, because the European Championship will be next year, and this year I have no very important competitions, except for the Lithuanian Championship (June 28-30) and the SELL Student Sports Games (May 16-19). I will try to keep improving the result.”

Arminas Ačas (55.00 m) and Aurėja Streikutė (41.21 m) won gold medals in the discus throw event of the Lithuanian Long Throw Championship in the junior group, Karolis Zizas (48.92 m) and Austė Kvaukaitė (33.26 m) in the junior group, and Vilentas Cibauskis (44.12 m) in the junior group. and Miglė Ranceva (37.97 m).