Discus: Failing to go the distance

By EUGENE BINGHAM

Even with 90,000 people cheering for him, Auckland discus thrower Ian Winchester was not able to live up to his own expectations on Sunday.

His technique felt fine, the power seemed to be there, but of his three throws in the qualifying round at the Olympics, the best he could manage was 58.64m - six metres below his best.

"I lacked a bit of zing, maybe there was a bit of being a bit tentative because it was a big meet," the 27-year-old said.

The crowd certainly made its presence known.

Though it was only a morning session in which Winchester was throwing, a near sell-out crowd was there, mostly to watch the finish of the women's marathon.

While they waited for the endurance runners to enter the stadium, the crowd became enthusiastic about the discus qualifying round playing out before them.

As the only Oceania representative in the competition, Winchester became the fans' favourite.

He tried to put the cheers and claps out of his mind as he stepped into the circle, his face prominent on the large television screens at either end of the ground.

His first throw went out to 58.61m, a solid start, the next only went another three centimetres, and he fouled his last attempt.

Winchester finished in 15th place, three positions below what he would have needed to make the final, and nearly 10m astray of the winner, Olympic record holder Lars Riedel of Germany.

"I would like to have thrown 62m and that was fairly obtainable.

"I've been throwing around that in practice," said the Les Mills-coached athlete.