Athletics-Stahl leaves it late to win discus gold in delayed final

By Nick Mulvenney

TOKYO, Sept 21 – Former Olympic champion Daniel Stahl of Sweden won the last gold medal of the 2025 World Athletics Championships on Sunday with the penultimate throw of a men’s discus final delayed for more than two hours by rain.

World record holder Mykolas Alekna managed the only legal throw before the heavens opened at the National Stadium and the athletes were removed from the arena for safety reasons.

They returned after all the other events and the official closing ceremony had been completed, an army of volunteers wiping down the throwing circle with towels between attempts as the rain persisted.

Lithuanian Alekna laid down a marker with a throw of 67.84m on his second attempt which it led until Stahl took to the circle for his last shot at the title.

Revving up the remaining crowd at the arena where he won the Olympic title in 2021, the 33-year-old sent the disc soaring in to the sky and past the 70-metre line for his season’s best throw of 70.47m and a third world title.

Alekna, 22, fouled his last attempt and finished second to add to his bronze at the last world championships and silver in 2022 but remained without a title to match the two his father Virgilijus won in discus in 2003 and 2005.

Alex Rose took bronze with a throw of 66.96m on his fifth attempt to knock Australia’s Matt Denny out of third place and give Samoa a first world championship medal.

This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.