Cal's Mykolas Alekna Settles For Bronze at Euro Championships

The world-recodholder remains a top contender to capture gold in the discus at the Paris Olympics

Mykolas Alekna /

Mykolas Alekna’s unblemished season met with its first defeat on Friday.

The 21-year-old Cal junior and world-recordholder in the men’s discus,  finished third at the European Championships at the Olympic Stadium in Rome.

A year after winning gold at the European Championships, the Lithuanian takes home a bronze medal.

Alekna, who took a year off college competition to prepare for this summer’s Paris Olympics, delivered a best throw of 221 feet, 5 inches (67.48 meters) — more than 22 feet of his world-record mark.

Kristjan Ceh, the 2022 world champion, won Slovenia’s first-ever European title with a throw of 223-4 (68.08). Austria’s Lukas Weisshaidinger, bronze medalist at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, finished second at 222-1 (67.70).

Sweden’s Daniel Stahl, Olympic gold medalist in Tokyo, wound up fourth at 219-3 (66.84).

Alekna threw virtually just as far during the morning qualifying, when he advanced easily with a single toss of 221-5 (67.50). In the finals, four of his six throws were fouls.

The winner of three Diamond League competitions this season, Alekna broke the 39-year-old world record in the discus with a massive heave of 243-11 (74.35) at Ramona, Oklahoma on April 14. He topped 70 meters in three of his five previous meets this season.

Former Cal middle-distance runner Georgia Bell, 30, of Great Britain, continued her strong season by qualifying for the Sunday final in the 1,500-meter run with a time of 4:12.01.

Bell, who stepped away from the sport after her days at Cal before returning last year, finished eighth at the Prefontaine Classic last month with a personal-best time of 4:00.41 that was 21st-best in the world this year and third among European runners entering this week. 

Meanwhile, Cal rising senior Caisa-Marie Lindfors of Sweden qualified into the Saturday final of the women’s discus with a throw of 200-10 (61.22). 

Incoming freshman Lucija Leko of Croatia failed to qualify in the discus but delivered a personal-best effort of 186-11 (56.97). She also competed in the shot put qualifying, throwing 51-2 3/4 (15.61) and failing to advance.