Stona makes Olympics qualifying mark

Jamaican field athlete Rojé Stona achieved the qualifying standard in the men’s discus throw for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games on Sunday when he recorded a new personal best of 69.05 metres at the Oklahoma Throws Series World Invitational.

Stona had to settle for second, however, as his new personal best fell short of Lithuanian Mykolas Alekna who set a new men’s discus world record of 74.35m.

Alekna’s mark erased the long-standing world record of 74.08m set by Jurgen Schult of East Germany in 1986.

Stona enjoyed a brilliant day out on Sunday. He opened with his best mark of 69.05m before registering a foul attempt in the second round. He returned with an impressive mark of 65.46m before completing his remaining rounds with 65.34m, 68.05m, and 67.88m.

However, Alekna was very impressive throughout the competition and went over the 70m mark in each round for a brilliant overall performance.

His full results saw him opening with 72.21m before recording 70.32m, 72.89m, 70.51m, 74.35m, and 70.50m to complete the event.

Jamaica’s Ralford Mullings finished 10th overall on the day with his best effort of 65.29m coming in the third round while fellow Jamaican Chad Wright finished just behind him in 11th. Wright’s best effort in the second round of 65.00m saw him placing just outside the top 10.

Improved on previous best

Stona, the former Rusea’s High and St Jago High athlete, improved on his previous best mark of 68.64m on his way on achieving the 2024 Olympic qualifying standard of 67.20m and became the third Jamaican to do so in the discipline.

He joins Mullings who recorded a distance of 69.67m earlier this month and Traves Smikle who threw 67.83m at the GC Foster College in March.

Stona’s qualifying mark means for the second Olympic cycle in a row, Jamaica has at least three athletes hitting the Olympic qualifying standard in the discus.