Lukas Weißhaidinger: “I keep getting asked about it”

Since this season, the two best throwers in Austria’s athletics have had the same coach, Gregor Högler, and the same training base in Südstadt.

Discus thrower Lukas Weißhaidinger and javelin thrower Victoria Hudson have already reached their first goal of the season by reaching the World Cup limits, Weißhaidinger also ticked off another big project with his first 70 m throw.

With the energy obtained from it, it is now in the international comparison.

A series of competitions

An intensive competition block starts this week on Thursday with the Liese-Prokop-Memorial in St. Pölten, on Sunday the first start abroad follows in Sollentuna in Sweden. On Tuesday next week, the Upper Austrian will be in Turku, Finland, where most of the discus world leaders will meet. “This competition period is a very important part of the World Cup,” said Högler on Monday at a press conference in the BSFZ Südstadt. “Luki is at a level where you can only really train your brain through competitions.”

What is important now is the contact with the competitors and the stress of the competition, under which the throwing technique should be automated. “We have competitions every two or three days,” explained Högler.

“It’s almost like training under very high demands. The brain always needs training. And that’s why it’s an important part to prepare it for the really tough thing,” said the 51-year-old, referring to the Budapest World Cup in August. Before that, starting in July, there will be a phase in which the body has to be calmed down in order to then prepare it for the World Cup.

“It was important to me”

Since May 19, 70.68 m has been Weißhaidinger’s record and thus also the Austrian record. The 31-year-old appears to be in third place in the world best list for the year. “The last few days and weeks have been very nice,” the Olympic bronze medalist in Tokyo 2021 gave an idea of ​​the importance of surpassing the 70 m for him.

“I keep getting asked about it. It was important to me that I really wanted to do it this year.” Congratulations on reaching the sporting milestone came only sporadically and otherwise rather cautiously from the competition.

For the rest of the season, a load has now been lifted from his shoulders. “This goal is gone now, now I can focus better on the next competitions and the World Championships,” explained Austria’s “Athlete of the Year”. Such a long throw puts pressure on the World Cup on the one hand, on the other hand it also has a liberating effect, said Weißhaidinger. “I can go into the World Cup with more confidence.” In addition, his record throw was successful under less than ideal external conditions. “Maybe then I can copy it and call it up when the time is right.”

Högler restricted the group of World Championship medal contenders to a septet. “We’re part of it. We’ve certainly caught up compared to last year.” The remaining sextet consists of the Slovenian world champion Kristjan Ceh, the Lithuanian European champion Mykolas Alekna, the Swedish Olympic champion Daniel Stahl, his compatriot and Olympic silver medalist Simon Petterson, the British European Championship bronze medalist Lawrence Okoye and Andrius Gudzius, third at the World Championships, another Lithuanian . “And then there are usually one or two surprises,” added Weißhaidinger.

Offset by seven centimeters

The ÖLV athlete may then be one step further, for example through another technical improvement. According to Högler, the risk of trespassing has been minimized. “Luki is getting stronger and every change we’ve made so far has been to get him closer to the edge of the circle in front, so we had to find a few inches that he could stand securely.” Now the starting position for the forward rotation, which falls slightly to the right, is five to seven centimeters offset. Högler: “Luki is now slightly shifted to the left in the circle.”

Hudson is now also benefiting from Högler’s technical approach; the now 27-year-old was already involved with the former javelin thrower when she was young. But she is also inspired by her new training partner, even if there are only a few units together. “70 m is an incredible inspiration, even if it’s a different discipline. In terms of attitude, I get something from Luki.” He also gives Hudson medal potential, Högler said similarly. Last year’s European Championship tenth broke the World Cup norm with 64.05 m.

“The conditions weren’t ideal there,” admitted Hudson, who will also be in action in St. Pölten on Thursday. After an unsuccessful interlude in the Czech Republic in autumn, she came into Högler’s care in January. “We then did a lot in very little time. It has become much more professional for me, it was a lot of work with very modern strength equipment.” Hudson has firmly planned the Diamond League meeting on June 30 in Lausanne. In addition to a good World Cup placement, improving her ÖLV record of 64.68 m is a goal of the season.