The
discus thrower Virgilijus Alekna, is one of the
stars at the Qatar Athletics Super Grand Prix.
The twice Olympic champion (2000, 2004) and
thrice gold medallist at the IAAF World
Championship (2001, 2003, 2005) also won last
year at the Doha Super Grand Prix with a throw
of meters 69.47m. He announced that he is in
great shape for this edition and would like to
defend his title.Alekna is 35 years old and comes from Terpeikiai in the Republic of Lithuania. He has an impressive physique, with a height of 2m and a weight of 130kg. Due to this, he has even been assigned as a personal bodyguard to the President of the Republic. Alekna graduated from the Academy of Physical Culture and started his international career as a discus thrower 11 years ago at the Atlanta Olympics Games 1996, where he was placed 5th. Since then he has had a steady improvement, winning the bronze medal at the European championship 1998 and reaching Olympic glory in Sydney 2000.
Also in 2000, he threw the discus to a distance of 73.88m during the Lithuanian Championship, which is until now the 2nd furthest discus throw. His ability to win when everything seems to be in favour of his opponents depicts the sort of the athlete that he is. For example, at the Helsinki World Championship 2005 he was able to win with a final throw of 70.17m. This win gave him his third gold medal in a championship and also established the best performance ever reached by any competitor in a global championship.
In Doha this Friday, Alekna will face stiff competition from specialists in the discus throw. Amongst them is the Bronze medallist of the last edition of the European championship, Aleksander Tammert of Estonia (best performance of 70.82m), American Jarred Rome (67.25m in 2006) and his compatriot Ian Waltz (68.91m in 2006), 29 years old Yennifer Frank Csanas (best performance 2006, 67.14m).
Also competing in this event are two local athletes, Rashid Shafi Al Dosari, winner of the silver medal at the 15th Asian Games 2006 with a throw of 62.11m and a personal best of 64.43m and 21 year old Ahmed Mohamed Dheeb who is hoping to reach the international elite club of the “60m” throwers.
