Athletics at the 2016 Summer Olympics – Men's discus throw

Men's discus throw at the Games of the XXXI Olympiad
Venue	Olympic Stadium
Date	12–13 August
Competitors	35 from 24 nations
Winning distance	68.37
Medalists
Christoph Harting  Germany Piotr Małachowski  Poland Daniel Jasinski  Germany

The men's discus throw competition at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The event was held at the Olympic Stadium on 12–13 August. Germany's Christoph Harting succeeded his brother Robert Harting to the Olympic title. Poland's Piotr Małachowski took the silver medal ahead of another German, Daniel Jasinski.

Summary

Robert Harting was the defending champion from the 2012 Olympics – though injury had affected his 2015 season, he ranked third in the world before the competition. His brother Christoph Harting was one place higher, while the reigning 2015 World Champion Piotr Małachowski topped the world seasonal rankings.

In qualification, Robert Harting could not reach his seasonal peak and was eliminated. Other prominent athletes who failed to progress were 2012 Olympic runner-up Ehsan Haddadi, 2015 World Championship bronze medalist Robert Urbanek and Fedrick Dacres, who was fourth on the world rankings. Only two athletes achieved the automatic qualifying mark: Małachowski headed the field over Lukas Weißhaidinger of Austria.

In the final, Małachowski seized the lead in the opening round with 67.32 m. He had three successive throws over 67 metres while Germany's Christoph Harting and Jasinski held second and third with throws over 66 metres. Those top three positions stood from round 2 through to the penultimate round. In the last round the competitors came to life: Estonia's Martin Kupper threw 66.58 m to take the silver medal position. Jasinski immediately replied with 67.05 m to move into second place himself. Harting, sitting outside the medals at that point, delivered a lifetime best of 68.37 m (224 ft 3 in) with his final throw to take the gold medal. Małachowski could not respond with his last effort and finished with the silver medal, having led for almost the entire competition and holding three of the four best marks of the 2016 Olympics. Harting's win made it the first time in Olympic athletics history that siblings had won successive gold medals.

Schedule

All times are Brasília Time (UTC−3).

Date	Time	Round
Friday, 12 August 2016	09:30	Qualifications
Saturday, 13 August 2016	10:50	Finals

Records

Prior to the competition, the existing World and Olympic records were as follows.

World record	Jürgen Schult (GDR)	74.08 m	Neubrandenburg, East Germany	6 June 1986
Olympic record	Virgilijus Alekna (LTU)	69.89 m	Athens, Greece	23 August 2004

Format

Each athlete receives three throws in the qualifying round. All who achieve the qualifying distance progress to the final. If less than twelve athletes achieve this mark, then the twelve furthest throwing athletes reach the final. Each finalist is allowed three throws in last round, with the top eight athletes after that point being given three further attempts.

Results

Qualification

Qualification rule: qualification standard 65.50m (Q) or at least best 12 qualified (q).

Rank	Group	Name	Nationality	#1	#2	#3	Result	Notes
1	A	Piotr Małachowski	Poland	64.69	65.89		65.89	Q
2	A	Lukas Weißhaidinger	Austria	63.43	65.86		65.86	Q, SB
3	B	Christoph Harting	Germany	x	64.49	65.41	65.41	q
4	A	Andrius Gudžius	Lithuania	59.50	x	65.18	65.18	q, SB
5	A	Gerd Kanter	Estonia	62.86	64.02	x	64.02	q
6	B	Mason Finley	United States	61.52	62.55	63.68	63.68	q
7	B	Axel Härstedt	Sweden	63.58	x	x	63.58	q
8	B	Apostolos Parellis	Cyprus	61.60	63.35	61.74	63.35	q
9	B	Zoltán Kővágó	Hungary	59.83	63.34	61.57	63.34	q
10	B	Martin Kupper	Estonia	61.15	62.92	x	62.92	q
11	A	Daniel Jasinski	Germany	x	62.83	61.30	62.83	q
12	B	Philip Milanov	Belgium	62.68	62.59	x	62.68	q
13	B	Sven Martin Skagestad	Norway	59.69	62.45	x	62.45
14	A	Daniel Ståhl	Sweden	60.78	x	62.26	62.26
15	B	Robert Harting	Germany	x	x	62.21	62.21
16	A	Andrew Evans	United States	x	61.87	x	61.87
17	B	Robert Urbanek	Poland	x	61.76	61.53	61.76
18	B	Mauricio Ortega	Colombia	x	61.62	x	61.62
19	B	Matthew Denny	Australia	60.78	61.16	x	61.16
20	A	Benn Harradine	Australia	60.82	60.85	55.68	60.85
21	B	Guðni Valur Guðnason	Iceland	53.51	60.45	59.37	60.45
22	A	Jorge Fernández	Cuba	59.93	60.43	60.09	60.43
23	A	Mykyta Nesterenko	Ukraine	57.87	60.28	60.31	60.31
24	B	Ehsan Haddadi	Iran	57.86	59.92	60.15	60.15
25	B	Frank Casañas	Spain	x	57.81	59.96	59.96
26	A	Tavis Bailey	United States	x	59.81	59.25	59.81
27	A	Lois Maikel Martínez	Spain	x	59.42	x	59.42
28	B	Vikas Gowda	India	57.59	58.99	58.70	58.99
29	A	Alex Rose	Samoa	57.24	56.47	54.42	57.24
30	A	Mahmoud Samimi	Iran	56.94	55.43	56.07	56.94
31	A	Yevgeniy Labutov	Kazakhstan	55.54	54.02	54.82	55.54
32	B	Oleksiy Semenov	Ukraine	54.69	54.59	55.35	55.35
33	A	Sultan Mubarak Al-Dawoodi	Saudi Arabia	x	54.09	54.84	54.84
34	A	Fedrick Dacres	Jamaica	x	x	50.69	50.69
	B	Danijel Furtula	Montenegro	x	x	x	NM

Final

Rank	Name	Nationality	#1	#2	#3	#4	#5	#6	Result	Notes
	Christoph Harting	Germany	62.38	66.34	x	x	64.77	68.37	68.37	PB, WL
	Piotr Małachowski	Poland	67.32	67.06	67.55	x	65.51	65.38	67.55
	Daniel Jasinski	Germany	65.77	65.01	66.08	64.83	63.31	67.05	67.05
4	Martin Kupper	Estonia	64.47	x	62.88	x	x	66.58	66.58
5	Gerd Kanter	Estonia	65.10	63.01	64.45	63.73	x	x	65.10
6	Lukas Weißhaidinger	Austria	62.14	62.44	61.81	x	x	64.95	64.95
7	Zoltán Kővágó	Hungary	64.50	x	62.98	x	x	x	64.50
8	Apostolos Parellis	Cyprus	61.00	60.82	63.72	x	63.49	62.37	63.72
9	Philip Milanov	Belgium	62.22	x	x	Did not advance			62.22
10	Axel Härstedt	Sweden	54.77	62.12	x	Did not advance			62.12
11	Mason Finley	United States	60.43	x	62.05	Did not advance			62.05
12	Andrius Gudžius	Lithuania	60.66	58.89	x	Did not advance			60.66