athletics
With a strong 68.30 meters, discus thrower Lukas Weißhaidinger took second place at the Diamond League meeting in Rome on Thursday. The Upper Austrian was only beaten by the Slovenian Kristjan Ceh, who also won the third meeting of the series with 70.72 m. Third place went to the Swedish Olympic champion Daniel Stahl (65.87 m).
Weißhaidinger, who recently threw the new Austrian record of 69.11 m in Eisenstadt, finished fourth in Birmingham and fifth in Rabat after a chaotic arrival. In the overall standings, the 30-year-old now ranks fourth with 16 points behind Ceh (24), Stahl (19) and Lithuanian Andrius Gudzius (17). Weißhaidinger is pretty sure of the Diamond League final place in Zurich, the top six will be there.
Weißhaidinger’s series in the Italian capital was something to be proud of: five out of six attempts were valid, in addition to the top distance he also achieved 65.96, 66.23 and 67.40 m.
Place in front of Olympic champion brings self-confidence
“A great thing! This second place makes me happy and gives me a lot of self-confidence, as well as the fact that I was able to leave the Olympic champion behind,” explained Weißhaidinger. He finally found the flow he was hoping for and improved from litter to litter.
Coach Gregor Högler also saw it that way: “Technically it was great, now everyone knows that Lukas will have to be considered in the important competitions this year as well. Even with his third-best distance, Lukas would still have finished second – that says it all.” The highlights of the season are the World Championships in Eugene (USA) in July and the European Championships in Munich in August.