World discus record-holder Mykolas Alekna made a remarkable comeback with victory at the Heino Lipp Memorial in Johvi, Estonia on Tuesday (16).
Just three months after undergoing surgery on a torn pectoral muscle which threatened to sideline him for the duration of the season, the 23-year-old was not just back competing again but competing at a very high level.
In his first competition since the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo where he won silver, Alekna broke the 70 metre-barrier with a fifth-round mark of 70.60m for victory over a glittering field including three reigning major champions.
Alekna defeated reigning European champion Kristjan Ceh from Slovenia who was second with 69.35m. Olympic champion Roje Stona from Jamaica was third with 65.42m while three-time world champion Daniel Ståhl from Sweden failed to register a valid mark with any of his three attempts.
Alekna’s first big competition of the season is expected to be the Eugene Diamond League on 3-4 July. He is also expected to compete at the Lithuanian Championships in Palanga on 24-26 July on the road to the European Athletics Championships in Birmingham from 10-16 August.
It was at the 2022 European Athletics Championships in Munich where Alekna made his breakthrough by winning the title at the age of 19 to become the youngest winner of the men’s discus title in the history of the championships.
Alekna would then go on to be crowned men’s Rising Star at the 2022 Golden Tracks awards ceremony, following in the footsteps of his father Virgilijus who was named men’s European Athlete of the Year in 2005.
Other notable results included Ukraine's Mykhaylo Kokhan winning the hammer with 79.22m ahead of European U20 champion Armin Szabados from Hungary with 79.18m and France's Jeff Erius winning the men's 100m with 10.23.