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Today 17:00 (Estonian time); 15:00 (GMT) a competition in Växjö Gerd Kanter is trying to brake the indoor WR 66.20. Team75plus.com will have live results from the competition.
http://www.team75plus.com/18387
http://www.team75plus.com/18387
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69.51 WR
Enough to not be just a footnote. Future discus fans will give this the respect it deserves. Of course Kanter has many superb marks with negligible wind aid to his name (and will surely throw many more) but with this one, the next generation won't have to find some twenty-year-old archive to know. -
what are the dimensions of the stadium ?
how high is it's roof ?
intriguing...
his other throws may include negligible wind, but you can't say for certain as there is no wind gauge 20+ up in the air - at least we know now he can throw virtually 70m in absolutely still conditionsComment
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unless the air conditioning was on high :-)Comment
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that's true !
if they pushed it up to 90+ degrees, i'm sure jrm's heat/humidity calculator will tell us that added 2m to it compared to standard ~ 65 degrees !Comment
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I think they forgot to mention that the venue Is actually an aerodynamic lab's wind tunnel!!!
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OK, firstly about the venue in Vaxjo, it is an indoor soccer hall, around 100m long by 50m wide (typical soccer field) and is 23m high down the centre of the hall. It is an artificial turf surface with small rubber granules, and was no problem to throw on, causing no damage to the turf or the discus...very good.
This facility is typical of many of the regional sports facilities, well though out to accommodate as much as possible. Basically it is a series of buildings, or actually three halls. Alongside the football field down one side was a 100-120m 8 lane straight, that was in use most of the time that we were there with different groups of kids from the local club, with lots of volunteer coaches working with them. At one end there was a field events hall of 60m x 30m, which contained pole vault, high jump, sand pit, throwing cage (circular) which allowed hammer and discus throwing into the cage , and various tarps and walls that allowed for discus and javelin throws as well as medicine balls.
Cleverly they had made use of all space, and around the football field there was a 2 lane rubber track of about 350m that went underneath the grandstands down each side, so allowed for jogging and warming up. They had also had made a lane which followed this path on 3 of the 4 sides, but then extended across the 8 lane sprint straight to the outside lane, which actually made a full 400m loop. They then had various distance markers which allowed for various training sessions to be easily organised... Carolina Kluft was doing 10 x 150m when I arrived. This is her home city/track, and although she now lives 100km away, travels 4 days a week to use this facility!
Interestingly, there are big doors about 8m high and 4m wide between the Field Events hall and the main soccer field. Thes can be opened up to allow Javelin run-up from the field events hall, and thrown from behind these doors into the soccer field. Magnus Arvidsson is also based here.
Also, this facility is always in use, with soccer games of practices and always lots of kids running around. During WInter the facility is booked many month in advance, and in fact to put on this competition they had to reschedule 2 soccer matches that were scheduled months ago! Even training last night to try out the circle and lighting conditions could only take place after 9pm, once all the soccer practices had ended. Even for the competition today, the soccergame finished at 1:45pm, and we had to set up the cage and circle,as well as paint the sector lines ready to start the womens competition at 2:30pm!
Gerd Kanter is in awesome shape right now, particularly for this stage of the season, and his confidence is high. He opened up last week at the Euro Winter Throws with his best ever mark there, 69.70m and came to Vaxjo to break the Indoor World Best of 66.20m from Wolfgang Schmidt dating back to 1980!
Actually Gerd was probably trying too hard, and in doing so lost a little smoothness to his technique. His first throw was a disappointing (for him) 65m, but got the record on his second throw with 69.51m. All other throws were past the old record, but he did not "catch" the big throw that he was hoping for, as I think he had in his mind to throw 70m plus!
In practice last night (10 throws finishing at 10pm!) he threw 70.45m measured, and with his 4 warm up throws today he had one close to 70m and one over 71m, so actually he was a little (slightly) disappointed with his final result! It is a nice position to be when you are unhappy with a throw of 69.50m+!!!!! I think that they will put up film of this big warm up on the Team75 website when they get back home.
Gerd and his coach are planning for big things during their training camp in California in April/May, as they hope to be in their best shape to throw a World Record in May. Gerd has had his seasons best for the past two seasons in Salinas in May, but this was done during their normal heavy training period, without backing off training for these competitions. This year that will be different, as they intend to give more active rest during this period, so that he will be fresher when it comes to these competions.
A world record is never easy, and some are harder than others. The discus WR is the longest standing in the books now, dating back to 1986, but I would advise anyone that wants to witness history being made, to try and make the journey to San Diego and Salinas as I amsure that you will see something special.
I have been lucky enough to have been around some of the greatest Discus throwers of all time, when they have been at their peak, including Powell, Wilkins, Burns and Plucknett of the early 80s all throwing these kinds of distances, but none of them showed the power and consistancy that Gerd is showing right now. Probably only Ben could have thrown these kinds of distances (70m) with no wind, as he had such brute strength. Even Alekna thowing 71m in a stadium in Zurich was an awesome spectacle, but the current form of Gerd is pretty special. It was an honour to be there today and I thank Vesteinn for inviting me!
I am definitely coming to California to watch the show next month, but I am not sure if I can make all of the scheduled meets, so I only hope that I am there when he finaly "catches one".
Well done Gerd!
ShaunPComment
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The sports facility is actually more interesting than the record, although it's certainly a fine throw.Comment
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Wow you did your homework when you were in Växjö Shaun.
I train in this arena 7-8 months a year and I imagine that for throwers it must be the perfect place to train. If you have the possibility to throw before noon the soccer field is almost always free and you can throw both the javelin and the disc.
The only two downsides to this facility is that you have a hard time when running series of 120-400m due to the very sharp turns (it should be the same as inner lane outside but with the difference that ju come into it at maximum speed and the curve is only approximately 25m long).
Above 250m races should be very hard to run indoors as two of the turns are almost 90 degrees around the soccer field.
The 2nd downside is that we can not host competitions on 200/400m and all results from 800 and above gets the a * marker with oversized tracks.
Enough with the downsides, all in all it's a great track for indoortraining. And it's fun that Hafsteinsons discusthrowers seem to enjoy staying here for a big part of their indoor training. I can tell you that they are a good inspiration for the rest of us in the gym anyway
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Do you which meets Kanter will be competing in CA Shaun?Comment
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Only one that matters! :-)Comment
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I heard he was competing in Salinas?Comment
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