European U23 champion Steven Richter from Germany shattered his discus lifetime best at the Oklahoma Throws Series World Invitational in Ramona, a World Athletics Continental Tour Bronze meeting, on Thursday (9).
In optimal wind conditions, Richter had five throws over the 70 metre-barrier with his third round throw landing at 74.00m to move to fourth on the world all-time list, just eight centimetres shy of Jürgen Schult’s national record which dates back to 1986 and stood as a world record until 2024.
"It’s crazy, I still can’t believe it, it’s crazy. I actually thought the throw might go 71 meters. But then the discus got another push from the wind. Now it’s about transferring this good form to the competitions in the stadium," said Richter as quoted by Leichtathletik.de.
Richter almost replicated that effort on his fourth attempt which was measured at 73.96m before concluding his series with another impressive effort which landed at 73.15m.
Richter finished second behind Australia’s Olympic bronze medallist Matt Denny who took the victory with 74.04m but Richter did take the scalp of reigning European champion Kristjan Ceh who had to settle for third despite improving his Slovenian record to 72.61m.
Double Dutch in the women’s discus
European silver medallist Jorinde van Klinken won the women’s discus with a world lead of 68.98m, providing the first half of a Dutch one-two with Alida van Daalen finishing second with a lifetime best of 67.99m.
In a European-dominated competition, Germany’s Marike Steinacker finished third in 66.55m, just ahead of veteran Melina Robert-Michon who set another world V45 record of 65.96m, the fourth longest throw of her venerable career and her longest throw since winning bronze at the 2017 World Athletics Championships in London.
Valarie Sion (née Allman) placed sixth with 65.18m, her first loss since the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest.
World all-time men's discus top-10
75.56m - Mykolas Alekna (LTU), 2025
74.78m - Matthew Denny (AUS), 2025
74.08m - Jürgen Schult (GDR), 1986
74.00m - Steven Richter (GER), 2026
73.88m - Virgilijus Alekna (LTU), 2000
73.38m - Gerd Kanter (EST), 2006
72.61m - Kristjan Čeh (SLO), 2025
72.45m - Sam Mattis (USA), 2026
72.01m - Ralford Mullings (JAM), 2025
71.86m - Yuriy Dumchev (URS), 1983
71.86m - Daniel Ståhl (SWE), 2019