This edition, our front cover displays internationally acclaimed athlete Matthew Denny from Allora who brought bronze from France, and after that, GOLD from Brussels in discus throw.
On Saturday 14thSeptember 2024, a month after the Olympics in France, Allora’s own Matthew Denny won GOLD with a discus throw of 69.96m at the elite Diamond League competition meeting in Brussels in Europe. This snatched the 40-year-old record for this Belgium athletics meeting by 2 cm, and added 61 cm to Matthew’s own Australian record. This gave him the win at Brussels for the second consecutive year.
Matthew did this on his first throw, meaning the others missed on catch-up!
At the previous Brussels Games Matthew was on catch-up winning with his last throw. This year, Matthew was also ahead of all of his formidable former Olympic competitors including Mykolas Alekna of Lithuania, Daniel Ståhl of Sweden and Kristjan Čeh of Slovenia. Matthew is looking forward to coming meetings as he feels that 71 m is within him, with perhaps a possibility of bettering the current World Record of 74.35m.
Prior to this Brussels event were the Games in France. On Thursday 8thAugust 2024 at 4:25 pm Aussie time, Matthew Denny started in the final of the Olympic Games in Paris, France. This resulted in a magnificent bronze medal.
In the year leading up to the Games, Matthew had thrown 69.35m to become the Australian Record Holder. Reaching the qualification standard for the Olympics needs a throw of 66 metres. So, Matt was already 3.35m above the qualification requirement.
On Monday 5thAugust 2024 at 6:10pm, Australian eastern time (about 10:10 am Paris time): In the Group A qualifications, with 16 competitors, Matt was not quite upto his Australian record with a throw of 66.83 metres, just second behind Mykolas Alekna of Lithuania with 67.47m. Group B was won by Clemens Prüfer of Germany with 66.36 m, with Rojé Stona of Jamaica 65.32m for second. So, the scene was set for a great final.
(The historical records were World Record of 74.35m set by Mykolas Alekna of Lithuania and the Olympic Record of 69.89m set by Mykolas’s father, Virgilijus Alekna of Lithuania, on 23th August 2004 in Athens, Greece. In reality, the Olympic records only have an opportunity to be set or challenged every four years.)
In the final, Rojé Stona from Jamaica won the gold medal with 70.00 metres, then Mykolas Alekna of Lithuania won the silver medal with 69.97 metres, and Matthew Denny from Australia won the bronze medal with 69.31 metres. So, Rojé, with 70.00m bettered, by 110 millimetres, Mykolas’s father’s, Virgilijus, Olympic record of 69.89m to claim a new record; but was still well behind Mykolas’s world record of 74.35 m set just four months earlier in April 2024.
So, in these heady figures, our Matthew Denny from Allora, with 69.31 metres did a magnificent performance picking up a bronze for Australia, only 4 cm less than his Australian record, which he later improved in Brussels again.
Matthew was born on the 2ndJune 1996, as the youngest of eight in the Denny family. He always looked up to his eldest brother, Jonathan, who was with the Brisbane Broncos and the NRL teams. Then, later on, Matt probably looked down from his own massive height of six feet and five inches (1.956 metres) supported by massive muscle weight of 120 kg or 265 pounds or 18 stone 13 pounds. Matt realised that he enjoyed throwing the discus more than rugby; and Matt realised discus was much safer than the five shoulder reconstructions his brother endured with competitive football.
Matthew would ride his bicycle 5 kilometres each day to local schools, and then studied at Toowoomba Grammar for three years. Being at home on a small farm, as a teenager, he constructed his own discus circle. Oh, and before this, at age 8 or 9 he did learn to drive tractors, motorbikes, and cars, on the farm. Very handy some years later when he trained two or three days a week in Brisbane, relieving mum and dad of the driving.
In 2013, he won the World under-18 Youth Championships discus title. Then in 2014 he came fourth at the under-20 World Junior Championships. He continued his success in 2015 at the Summer Universiade where he obtained the silver medal with second. By 2015, to be at the university championships, he was well into his studies at Griffith University eventually obtaining the university Degree of Sports Science. This qualification helps his future income career, while currently appearing before audiences of sometimes thirty thousand people at an European venue allows the sport to be income producing in a similar way to the crowds coming to football in Australia.
In April 2016, Matthew, as under 20, was Australian Champion for the events of Hammer-Throw, and Discus. (The previous dual winner was 63 years before with Keith Pardon in 1963.) Matthew represented Australia at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro Brazil without qualifying for the final. At the Commonwealth Games in 2018 he won the discus and the hammer-throw categories. Then in the Games in Japan, postponed till 2021, Matthew was 5 cm short of winning the bronze medal, with 67.02m.
In 2022, Matthew won the first prize, Gold medal, at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham England. Then in 2024, first with Discus 69.35m at the Australian Athletics Championships in Adelaide. Following this was the bronze at 2024 Games in France at Paris.
Matthew's determination from the age of nine to be an achiever in sport and his persistence in school toward a career can be a wonderful role-model for the younger generation, whether in sport or any other career.
Wholehearted congratulations to Matthew and wishing him many more personal and international achievements.
By Pocket Books team.
Article written by
Gerry Clarke
Pocket Books 5438 1881
sd@pocketbooks.com.au