Of the Olympic bronze medalist ended up only in tenth place with 63.98 m. Top favorite Kristjan Ceh from Slovenia won gold with a World Championship record of 71.13 m ahead of the two Lithuanians Mykolas Alekna (69.27) and Andrius Gudzius (67.55).
Weißhaidinger did not get past 63.98 m in the first three attempts, which meant that he did not make it out of the twelve-final into the final decision of the top eight, who again have three throws. This also ended the series of the 30-year-old, who had won bronze at the 2018 European Championships, the 2019 World Cup and the 2021 Olympics. With Sweden’s Daniel Stahl and Simon Pettersson finishing fourth and fifth respectively, all three Tokyo Summer Games medalists went away empty-handed.
“The shape would have been right”
“That’s the sport, that’s part of it. Unfortunately, I didn’t find my way into the competition. Unfortunately, there are moments like that too,” said Weißhaidinger, who had made a confident impression in the qualification. “When you stand there at the World Cup and the best of the best come together and everything doesn’t fit together, then it becomes difficult. It was never far away, but not there either. You have to live with the fact that it doesn’t work out, of course it hurts. The shape would have been perfect in any case.”
When Weißhaidinger got to the stadium shortly before 6:00 p.m. (local time), he first stepped onto the lawn and looked in the direction of the discus landing zone, as if he wanted to aim for a place where the disc should land if possible. Only then did he enter the throwing circle, test the grip of the shoes and make a turning movement. The furthest of the three throw-ins landed at 67 m. “Throw-ins and competition are two different things,” Weißhaidinger said later.
A lot of risk
According to the tactics, Weißhaidinger risked a lot, wanted to shock the competition – the plan didn’t work out. With 61.72 m he got off to a bad start, the 63.98 m in the second round was only enough for tenth place. Which had to prevent the elimination in the third attempt. However, the disc only landed at 62.45. The top eight were 1.12 m short. “I put my left foot too late, unfortunately the process didn’t go well in the competition,” said the 30-year-old.
After qualifying on Sunday, coach Gregor Högler was very confident: “I really liked the throw. Nice position from the legs and had a bit of space forward – we’ll need that too,” he said. “I’ve been there for 30 years, I’m sure I’ve never seen such a good competition live. It’s all there. There’s so much potential from the fight inside, that makes it very exciting,” was anticipation of the medal decision there. It was also exciting and high-class, but his protégé Weißhaidinger did not play a leading role.
Six-foot-tall Ceh has won every Diamond League meet this season. He has very good technique, uses his arm span a lot, but also benefits from a high release height. Ceh is coached by Estonian Gerd Kanter, who was an opponent of Virgilijus Alekna, Mykolas Alekna’s father. Both seniors were Olympic champions and world champions. The young Alekna also puzzles Högler. “He’s 19, I also wonder how he does it. I’ve heard that he has extremely good jumping performance, which can then be explained. With technique, size, weight I couldn’t assign it how it works.”
Source: Nachrichten
