Matthew Denny’s monster discus throw smashes his Australian record
A huge throw elevated Matthew Denny into rarefied air on Sunday as the discus athlete recorded the fifth longest effort of all time while becoming the first Australian to eclipse the 70m mark at the Oklahoma Throws series in the US.Denny, who won a bronze medal at the Paris Olympics last year, smashed his previous personal best and national record of 69.96m set in the Diamond League final last year with a throw of 72.07m at the event in Ramona.His winning throw – as well as the 71.
12m he later recorded in the final round – would have been enough to win gold at the Paris Games,“I’m very, very proud of myself and my team and what we’ve been able to achieve today,” he said,“We’re finally over the 70-metre mark and we did it in pretty solid fashion, so it’s really satisfying, but also, the job isn’t done yet,“We came here for one reason and that was for the world record,I think this was a great shakeout off the plane and nice to get a bit of a feel for the place before competing at the World Invitational next week, but at the end of the day I’m still very proud to finally get over that mark and do that before the big competition.
”Just Lithuania’s world record-holder Mykolas Alekna, Jürgen Schult of East Germany, Virgilijus Alekna, also of Lithuania, and Estonia’s Gerd Kanter have thrown further than Denny,The 28-year-old will remain in the US this week before next weekend’s Oklahoma Throws series world invitational, where he will be able to challenge Alekna’s mark of 74,35m – set at the same event before the Olympics last year,“With this PB, it’s nice to finally put myself with where I think my training has been, and I’ve just never been really fortunate to get good conditions without tailwinds when I’ve been in good shape,” Denny said,Denny’s journey to the upper echelons of world athletics has been remarkable; he grew up in the small Queensland town of Allora near Toowoomba, population 1,000, launching bean bags as shot puts but mostly playing rugby league until his teenage years.
Once his focus shifted, he practised on a homemade discus circle at his family home before going on to win multiple youth championships, and later the national title, two Diamond League titles and Commonwealth Games gold in 2022.Sign up to Australia SportGet a daily roundup of the latest sports news, features and comment from our Australian sports deskafter newsletter promotion“Looking at where I’ve come from, and for a kid that just started with a circle in a country town – to then come to another country town across the other side of the world and go back to roots and break milestones … it shows that you don’t need all the fancy stuff, you just need a bit of grit and a bit of determination,” he said.Denny dedicated his latest achievement to his father, who died last year after watching his son claim a first Olympic medal.“This one was for Dad.He was a country guy who just did it anyway and got the job done no matter what the circumstances were,” Denny said.
“It keeps me accountable to just not complain and just get the job done.”
Stephen Colbert on Trump tariffs: ‘America is finally free from the tyranny of being able to buy stuff from other countries’
Late-night hosts delve into Donald Trump’s so-called “liberation day” of tariffs and the defeat of an Elon Musk-backed candidate in the Wisconsin supreme court race.Donald Trump finally announced his tariff plan on Wednesday, a day he referred to as “liberation day”. Or, in other words, “thanks to Donald Trump, America is finally free from the tyranny of being able to buy stuff from other countries,” Stephen Colbert joked on Wednesday evening. “Who’s ready to learn how to make their own iPad from scratch?”“For a guy who’s been touting tariffs for months, seems like this all came together at the last minute,” the Late Show host continued. Trump was reportedly weighing tariff options as late as Tuesday night
‘No agenda’ in Guardian investigation of Noel Clarke, high court hears
There was “no agenda” in the Guardian’s investigation of sexual misconduct allegations against Noel Clarke, the high court has heard.In her second day in the witness box, Lucy Osborne, an investigative correspondent at the Guardian, defended the publication’s reporting in the face of questioning from the former Doctor Who star’s barrister, Philip Williams.Osborne, co-author of the investigation that led to the actor’s libel claim, denied Williams’s assertions that there were “major inconsistencies” in the accounts of alleged victims or that there was a conspiracy to bring down Clarke.She said that if there had been any concerns, she would have flagged them to the Guardian’s head of investigations, Paul Lewis.“There was no agenda,” Osborne told the court on Wednesday
Sara Pascoe: ‘I still identify as an infertile, childless woman’
The standup used to joke about not having kids, but then she had IVF and found herself an ‘eroded’ mother of two. Now she’s back with a show about motherhood in her 40s – but don’t expect any cute parenting storiesMy favourite Sara Pascoe joke is her imaginary riposte to people asking if she’s going to have kids. They mean well, these prying parents – they just don’t want her to miss out on a life-enhancing experience. The thing is, the comedian has had some life-enhancing experiences of her own. “But I have never, ever said to anybody: ‘Oh, have you been on QI? Ahhh, you should go on QI!’” she insists, settling into her archly patronising pep talk
‘My father’s death saved my life’: director Steve McQueen on grief, gratitude and getting cancer
After his dad died at 67, the 12 Years a Slave film-maker knew it was only a matter of time before he would get prostate cancer, too. The disease kills 12,000 men a year in the UK – a disproportionate number of them black. Now, in a bid to save lives, he is speaking out about his own diagnosis, alongside the doctors who successfully treated himSteve McQueen felt relieved when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. He had no symptoms, was perfectly fit, at the peak of his game. Yet the Oscar-winning film-maker and artist believed it was inevitable
From A Minecraft Movie to Black Mirror: a complete guide to this week’s entertainment
A Minecraft MovieOut now You know how it is – you’re hanging out minding your own business when you’re pulled through a random portal into a three-dimensional world made up of voxels. That’s the fate that befalls Jason Momoa, Sebastian Hansen, Emma Myers and Danielle Brooks, where they meet Jack Black in this adaptation of the popular game.SebastianOut now Twentysomething Max works at a literary magazine in London while side-hustling as sex worker Sebastian to get inspiration for his debut novel, but soon finds his double life leading to a new understanding of his own identity, in this acclaimed first film from Mikko Mäkelä.Death of a UnicornOut now Accidentally hitting an animal is any driver’s nightmare. But it’s worse when said animal is an honest-to-god unicorn
The Guide #185: How The Phantom Menace’s trade wars can help you understand our political moment
There are many scary things to come out of Trump’s tariffs. The world economy being thrown into chaos; spiralling prices; furious economic experts showing charts with big down arrows, using phrases like “gilt markets” and “share index undergrowth”, which I definitely understand. But the most terrifying thing – the thing that has made me truly believe that we are living in the End Times – is a panic-inducing realisation: The Phantom Menace just might have been right all along.For those who haven’t seen the first Star Wars prequel, GOD I envy you. The dialogue is wooden and the structure inexplicable (sure, let’s just have a pod-race instead of an Act II) – and that’s even before we get onto the Jar Jar Binks of it all (the answer to the question “what if we shaved Paddington and spliced his DNA with the most unlikeable newt in the world?”)
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