The 21-year-old thrower from Disco Lithuania's Mykolas Alekna reached the distance of 74.35 metres, beating the oldest men's world record in athletics: the 74.08 m set by the German Jürgen Schult set almost 38 years ago. The throw was made during a minor competition in Ramona, Oklahoma.
Mykolas Alekna is the son of two-time Olympic discus champion Virgilijus Alekna (2000 and 2004). He already has two world medals, the silver in Eugene (United States) in 2022 and the bronze won in Budapest last summer, and is one of the favorites for the Olympic podium this summer in Paris. Prior to this competition, his record was 71 m, set in April 2023.
Schult, then a thrower for East Germany, had set his world record on 6 June 1986 in Neubrandenburg (Germany). The oldest world record in men's and women's track and field athletics together belongs to the former Czech middle-distance runner Jarmila Kratochvilova (then Czechoslovakian) since July 1983: 800 meters in 1'53"28.