At 25 years old, Rojé Stona has already cemented his place forever in Jamaican history. With his gold medal in the men’s discus final tonight in Paris, he will now and forever be known as the first Olympic champion in a field event to represent the green, black, and gold of Jamaica. To do so, he took down one of the best fields ever assembled and broke the Olympic record in the process with his mark of 70.00m. World record holder Mykolas Alekna finished just 3cm behind in 69.97, and Matty Denny of Australia won bronze at 69.31m.

Here’s what you need to know:

- 2022 World champion Kristjan Čeh got things off to a hot start with a 67.27m opener on the second throw of the competition. The lead went back and forth over the first two rounds. Alekna opened at 68.55m to move into lead, and Denny overtook him with his 69.31m throw early in round two.

- Five throws after Denny’s statement throw, Alekna responded with 69.97m, breaking the Olympic record of 69.89m held by his father, Virgilijus, from Athens 2004.

- These results held more-or-less until the field was narrowed to eight men after three rounds. On the second throw of the fourth round, Stona entered the circle and proceeded to become the first man in Olympic history to reach 70m in the discus. Alekna and Denny did their best to respond in the later rounds, with Alekna putting out marks of 68.88m and 68.49m and Denny hitting a 69.15m bomb, but neither could reclaim the lead from the 6’7” Jamaican.

By the numbers:

- Coming into these games, Jamaican throwers had never won an Olympic medal. After tonight’s action and Rajindra Campbell’s shot put bronze from last week, they now have two. Stona became the 32nd member of the 70m club tonight, and joined Čeh (2022, 2023), Daniel Ståhl (2023), and Virgilijus Alekna (2005) as the only men to throw 70m at a global championship. He is the first non-European man to win Olympic gold since Mac Wilkins in 1976 and the first to win global gold since Anthony Washington in 1999.

- Not a number, just an incredibly fun fact: Stona is coached by Ryan Crouser. A pair of golds for teacher and pupil isn’t a bad trip to Paris.

- Alekna finished in second by a mere 3cm, the smallest margin between gold and silver at the Olympics since 1904. In 1904, Martin Sheridan and Ralph Rose both threw 39.28m, and the gold was decided by a throw-off that Sheridan won. Despite the fact that he’s still just 21, this is Alekna’s third global medal, and 69.97m, a distance that only 32 men in history have thrown, is only the seventh-best mark of Alekna’s career.

- Denny’s medal is the first at either the Olympics or the World Championships by an Oceanian male discus thrower ever. 69.31m is the farthest mark by a third-place finisher in world history. With this mark, Denny now owns the five best in Australian history. Denny had finished inside the top six at each of the last four global championships, including fourth-place finishes in Tokyo and Budapest, so it’s great to see him land on the podium for the first time.

- In addition to Denny having the best third-place mark ever, this competition also had the best marks ever for fifth through eleventh place. This was the deepest discus competition in world history.

Full results:

1. Roje Stona - 70.00m OR

2. Mykolas Alekna - 69.97m

3. Matthew Denny - 69.31m

4. Kristjan Čeh - 68.41m

5. Lukas Weißhaidinger - 67.54m

6. Clemens Prüfer - 67.41m

7. Daniel Ståhl - 66.95m

8. Andrius Gudžius - 66.55m

9. Ralford Mullings - 65.61m

10. Traves Smikle - 64.97m

11. Alin Alexandru Firfirică - 64.45m

12. Alex Rose - 61.89m

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