Olympic discus competition

LIVE from 10am: Will Weißhaidinger make it to the final?

Lukas Weißhaidinger makes it to the final in style.

(Bild: AFP/Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV)

Very strong! Lukas Weißhaidinger qualified for the final of the discus throw on Wednesday on his very first attempt. The Austrian threw the disc to 66.72 meters at his first attempt - 72 centimeters above the required standard. He was the first athlete to achieve this.

From the outset, Lukas did not want to expend too much energy in the qualification. "I'm certainly not going to go all out, but if I qualify directly, that's fine by me," he said beforehand. After all, his general motto in Paris, and that of his coach Gregor Högler in particular, is to use as little energy as possible. This worked perfectly yesterday, as Lukas only needed a single attempt.

Weißhaidinger cut an outstanding figure right from the start. Comfortably, still in his training uniform, he stomped into the ring and threw the discus with ease exactly onto the yellow tape, which signaled the direct qualifying distance of 66.00 metres. In his first real attempt, the Upper Austrian went one better, throwing four meters further than all the other athletes and even surpassing the yellow tape this time, thus ending his working day.

Here are the qualifying results:

"I was already so charged up in the morning"
"That actually went better than optimal," grinned Luki, who had expected three throws in qualifying. "I was already so charged up in the morning that I only needed half a caffeine shot instead of two." Weißhaidinger, who is now in his third Olympic final, was impressed by the atmosphere, as the morning session was already sold out. "It was almost a shame that I only needed one throw."