Denny slips on wet discus circle as finals at World Athletics Championships in Tokyo are disrupted

Torrential rain at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo disrupted the men’s discus final Sunday evening. Australian Matt Denny slipped on the soaked discus circle during a throw, narrowly avoiding a sprain to his ankle and rising unharmed but clearly frustrated. The 29-year-old Queenslander, who has Olympic bronze from Paris and gold at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, appeared unsettled as he collected himself after the fall.

Due to the slick conditions, officials halted the competition and later postponed the final. Olympic champion Nina Kennedy told Channel Nine that the moment was not what elite sport is about: 'This isn't what elite sport is about.'

When the event resumed, Denny posted a 65.57-meter mark but finished just outside the podium as Samoa’s Alex Rose moved into bronze with a 66.96-meter throw. The result capped a challenging evening for the Australian contingent in disciplines affected by heavy rain.

In the same championships, Nicola Olyslagers delivered Australia’s lone gold on the final day, triumphing in the women’s high jump in rain-soaked conditions. It came eight years after she failed to clear a bar on her world championships debut in London. Olyslagers spoke afterward about maintaining perspective and letting performance define rather than identity: 'I've seen year-by-year a gradual performance up, but when I came last, I remember standing out there and I had so much peace because I knew that my performance didn't determine my identity and value. So then coming in as world No. 1, the pressure was off because I knew that if you can't lose anything when you come last, you can't gain anything when you come first. So let's go out there and do it.'