Cal Track and Field: Mykolas Alekna's College Discus Debut Is Prompting Smiles
Mykolas Alekna didn’t even need to look. The moment the discus left his hand, he knew.
The 19-year-old Lithuanian uncorked the longest discus throw in Cal history on Saturday, flinging the 2-kilogram implement 66.70 meters or 218 feet, 10 inches to ink his name on a handful of top lists here, back home and around the world.
“Oh yeah, it was a great feeling,” Alekna said this week when asked how his throw at San Diego State felt. “You can always tell a throw is good or not without even seeing it flying. The spin is very easy. You feel relaxed and very fast.”
Mykolas Alekna and coach Mo Saatara.
Cal throws coach Mo Saatara, who mentored Camryn Rogers to a fifth-place finish in the women’s hammer throw at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics as a Cal undergrad, says Alekna’s training had suggested something good was coming.
He didn’t expect it to be this good.
“I knew he was going to throw very big,” Saatara said. “It was excellent conditions for throwing. The training was going very well. So I thought at some point along the season we’re going to get a big throw.
“That was obviously surprising. He’s the first under-20 athlete ever to throw that far, by a lot.”
Pending ratification by World Athletics, Alekna’s mark eclipses the 14-year-old world under-20 record of 65.31 meters by more than 4 1/2 feet.
“I was throwing pretty well in practice . . . around 64 or 65 meters,” he said. “I was a little bit surprised. I didn’t expect to throw that far this early in the season."
Here’s where Alekna’s massive throw places him on a variety of lists:
— The season is young, but he resides at No. 3 in the world
— He broke the Cal record of 210 feet, 11 inches set 30 years ago by three-time Paraguayan Olympian Ramon Jimenez-Gaona
— His throw ranks him No. 3 all-time on the NCAA list
— Alekna broke Lithuania’s under-23 national record and is No. 4 all-time among his country’s best. That list is topped by his father, Virgilijus Alekna, a two-time Olympic gold medalist.
Mykolas’s throw also earned him qualification for this summer’s World Championships, set for July 15-24 in Eugene, Oregon — the first time the event has ever been held on U.S. soil.
By the time he gets to Track Town USA to face the best in the world, Alekna should be comfortable with the renovated facility at Hayward Field. He will compete in Eugene at the Pac-12 Championships, May 13-14-15, and the NCAA Championships, June 8-11.
It’s a busy schedule for a young thrower, who will bypass competing this weekend at the Stanford Invitational, a high-caliber meet where two-time NCAA champion Rogers is scheduled to make her outdoor season debut in the hammer.
Alekna, who projects a calm nature, nonetheless is still digesting everything now coming his way.
“I’m really excited. It’s hard to believe that all my career is going so fast,” he said. “I started to throw just five years ago and I’ll be competing at the highest level. That’s just insane. It’s hard to understand for me.”
At 6-foot-5 with long arms, Alekna has inherited some good genes from his father, who stands 6-7.
His greatest asset as a thrower?
“He’s a very explosive athlete, very fast, very dynamic,” Saatara said. “He has great technique. He’s a young man so his technique is going go through evolution over time.”
So far, Saatara says, Alekna has shown an ideal demeanor.
“He’s a great championship competitor — very similar to Camryn,” Saatara said. “They just have a good chemistry for these kinds of meets. He was well-adjusted to competition.”
Because Alekna’s schedule could run deep into the summer with the Lithuanian and European championships, he and Saatara will pick and choose when he will compete this spring. And his approach to training also is carefully arranged.
“Discus takes a long, long time. We take a long view with everything,” Saatara said. “With all my athletes, the window of time with collegiate athletes if 4-5 years. With elite athletes it may be a 10-year program.
“His training’s been very stable. That was my main goal, make some technical adjustments but don’t wholesale change things. You never want to do that.”
Alekna said he chose Cal because of Saatara’s track record, not only at Berkeley but also coaching or consulting with other elite athletes, and because of the university’s academic reputation.
The recruiting process was inhibited by the restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic, preventing either party from visiting the other in person. Most communication was conducted remotely.
Alekna, who is considering a business major, said he’s happy with everything about his experience since arriving on campus in August.
“It’s been really nice. I love the team, everybody supports me. Very friendly environment. Also I love the coach,” he said. “It’s been great.”
And he’s embracing the milder Bay Area weather. The forecast high for Berkeley on Wednesday was 62 degrees. It’s 40 in his hometown of Vilnius.
Although Lithuania’s border is more than 560 miles from war-torn Ukraine — with Belarus between them — folks back home are understandably nervous about Russia’s invasion of its neighbor. Alekna said his mother is relieved that he’s here.
Alekna puts no limits on how far he expects to throw this season, although he believes there’s more to come.
“This season I want to win the NCAA championships — that would be one of my biggest goals,” he said. “Also it would be nice to do well in the World Championships and the European Championships. It’ll be my first time.”
But, no doubt, not his last.
Cover photo of Cal discus thrower Mykolas Alekna
Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo