¶2009 WC mDT: Robert Harting (Germany) 69.43 NR

[bhall]

THE FORMCHART
1. Gerd Kanter (Estonia) ...............73.38 .......240-9 (’06)
2. Virgilijus Alekna (Lithuania) .....73.88 .......242-5 (’00)
3. Zoltán Kövágó (Hungary) .........69.95 .......229-6 (’06)
4. Piotr MaÅ‚achowski (Poland) .....68.75 .......225-7 (’09)
5. Robert Harting (Germany) ........68.65 .......225-3 (’08)
6. Mario Pestano (Spain) ..............69.50 .......228-0 (’08)
7. Omar El-Ghazaly (Egypt) ..........66.58 .......218-5 (’07)
8. Frank Casañas (Spain) .............67.91......222-10 (’08)
9. Mohammed Samimi (Iran) ........ 65.33 ......214-4 (’09)
10. Casey Malone (USA) ...............68.49 .......224-8 (’09)

[LopenUupunut]

Samimi doesn't appear on IAAF's preliminary entrylists... IMO Pishchalnikov belongs in over him anyway?

[cacique]

no, the only iran entry is the youngster ehsan hadadi.

[Powell]

I still don't understand why Kovago is ranked so high. He's 1-5 vs Małachowski and 1-2 vs Harting this year. I can see Małachowski rated below him because of the injury (although he's reported to be OK at the moment), but why Harting? He's the defending silver medalist, and he set a SB in his last competition - over 1.5 meters beyond Kovago's 2009 best, and without significant wind.

[LopenUupunut]

Kövágó's '09 best is 67.64, and I don't see any Harting marks 1.5m beyond that. This said, it's still certainly a mystery. Probably Harting's crappy performances in the last two major meets counted against him.

[Powell]

Sorry, I missed the 67.64. But the fact is Kovago had his longest throws of the season way back in May, while Harting's form has been improving. I'm not sure what you mean by 'last two major meets'? He showed indifferent form in late May-early June (Halle, Bydgoszcz and Berlin), but he was still better than Kovago on 2 out of 3 occassions. His record in major championships is very good - silver in Osaka, and 4th place in Beijing while coming back from an injury (still over 67 meters).

[LopenUupunut]

I'm not sure what you mean by 'last two major meets'?

Heavy sarcasm alert.

[Powell]

66.73 for Kanter in round 1 of qualifying
Pestano second automatic qualifier with 65.03

[Vault-emort]

With a -1.5 for the first of the 200 heats, I'm presuming the wind is favouring the disc guys?

[Powell]

It looks like it - Malone now threw 65.13, and Harting did 66.81.

[Vault-emort]

Damn - looks like Australia still doesn't have a finalist...

[El Toro]

Damn - looks like Australia still doesn't have a finalist...

4m better than he's ever thrown in a championship Q and only a touch behind some very good throwers. I'd rate this a success and a good base for next time.

[Powell]

Alekna was the only automatic qualifier in round 1 of group B, throwing 65.04. Kovago just did in round two with 65.82.
Małachowski started with 64.20, which appears to be easily good enough to make the final.

[Powell]

Jarred Rome 65.51. Małachowski improved to 64.48 - 2cm off the automatic Q!

[LopenUupunut]

For the second consecutive year Frantz Kruger qualifies for the final in last place. (This time it is a delightful surprise!) This year he made it with a huge margin of 5cm, up from 4cm last year