World-recordholder Mykolas Alekna Set to Begin Final Season at Cal

After what his coach called “a dream season” in 2024, Mykolas Alekna will begin his final Cal track and field season at the Brutus Hamilton Invitational at Edwards Stadium on Saturday.

Alekna, the discus ace from Lithuania, shares the assessment by Mo Saatara, his throws coach at Cal. “It was the best year in my career for sure, so far,” Alekna said this week.

Let’s review what he achieved in 2024 while taking a year off from collegiate competition to prepare for the Paris Olympics:

— At a throws meet last April 14 at Ramona, Oklahoma, Alekna assembled the greatest discus series in history with six throws beyond 70 meters, including a mark of 74.35 meters — 243 feet, 11 inches — that erased the world record held for 38 years by East Germany’s Jurgen Schult.

— He won thre times at Diamond League competitions against the world’s best at Marrakech, Oslo and Stockholm, the first two with marks beyond 70 meters.

— At the Paris Games, still just 21 years old at the time, Alekna broke his father’s Olympic record before winding up with a silver medal when underdog Roje Stona of Jamaica delivered a late throw of 70.00 meters to take the gold by barely 1 inch.

— He finished the year as the world’s No. 9 male track and field athlete across every event, according to World Athletics’ scoring system. He was one spot behind Olympic 100-meter champion Noah Lyles and one ahead of 400-meter hurdles record holder Karsten Warholm of Norway.

A year ago, Alekna was No. 86 on the same world list.

“He’s coming up,” Saatara said.

Mykolas Alekna competing at Oregon's Hayward Field | Photo by Ben Longergan, The Register Guard

Now 22 — still very young for an elite discus thrower — Alekna said last year was new territory for him in a lot of ways.

“It was the first year where everyone was looking at me as the No.1 guy. So the pressure was there. It was definitely something new to me,” he said. “I still think it’s a great year even though I didn’t win the Olympic gold medal. I think it was an awesome year for me.”

The year began at Millican Field in the tiny Oklahoma town of Ramona (pop. 544), whose lure is a steady wind that legally aids discus throwers. Saatara chuckles at notion that Alekna’s world record only happened because of favorable atmospheric conditions.

“A lot of people will talk about Oklahoma with the wind,” Saatara said. “But you have to be very skilled to throw the discus that far, you have to be very strong. It’s not just you go there and automatically throw PRs.

“We know (Alekna) has these really monstrous throws in him. It’s just a matter of being able to put them together at the right time.”

Last April 14 was that time, when the worst of his six throws was 4 feet beyond what any of the meet's other 24 entries managed in the same conditions.

Asked whether 74.35 meters sounds very far a year later, Alekna said, “I’ve really gotten used to it.”

But it’s pretty far, isn’t it?

“Not too far.”

And it won’t be a burden, a mark that others will wait to see if he can duplicate or improve?

“No, no, no. I think I can throw near to that distance, even maybe with (normal) stadium conditions,” Alekna said. “In a few years I think I’ll be able to throw that. Maybe even this year. We’ll see. It doesn’t really seem like it’s a far number.”

Don’t expect it to happen Saturday at the Brutus Hamilton meet. Alekna and Saatara began his training calendar a month later than last year because this season not only includes the collegiate schedule but also the World Championships in Tokyo, where he will throw in the final on Sept. 21.

“I just want to get that feeling back, that feeling of competing. That’s what the sport is all about,” Alekna said of what he expects on Saturday. “I don’t have any high goals or anything. I think I’m in a better place than I was last year at the same time. That’s what matters.”

Alekna, who will graduate with a degree in psychology this spring, is a redshirt junior athletically, having sat out last season with the Bears. But this will be his final college campaign before he returns home to make Lithuania his home training base going forward.

Mykolas Alekna celebrates with coach Mo Saatara | Photo by Derrick Tuskan

Still, Alekna plans to visit Berkeley on occasion for a few practices with Saatara. And to enjoy the anonymity the Bay Area provides him.

In Lithuania, where the country’s population of 2.8 million is less than half of that in the Bay Area, he is a budding celebrity. The Olympics saw to that.

“He’s a big deal. They love him back home,” Saatara said.

“People recognize me, take pictures,” Alekna said. “It’s fun for a short time but when it happens every week, I just need to take a break. That’s why I like coming here. No one really knows me.”

Alekna’s spring schedule will include the 130th Big Meet against Stanford on May 3 — his final competition at Edwards Stadium — along with the ACC Championships, the NCAA West Regionals and the NCAA Championships, scheduled for June 11-4 at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon.

He also has decided to trek once more to Oklahoma for what should be a good competition a week from Sunday (April 13). The field will include the two early-season world leaders, Jamaica’s Ralford Mullings and Australia’s Matthew Denny, who won the bronze medal at Paris.

Mullings, a senior at Oklahoma, made a lifetime-best throw of 69.13 meters last Saturday at the Texas Relays, moving him to the No. 2 spot on the all-time collegiate list. Alekna, who set the collegiate record of 71.00 meters in 2023, still has seven of the longest nine throws by a college athlete.

“I think If I feel good and the conditions are good, I can throw really far,” said Alekna, who will not be specifically targeting his world record at Oklahoma. “Honestly, I don’t really think about that. I’m just going there to compete.”

The highlight event on Alekna’s college schedule is the NCAA meet in June. Although he owns an Olympic silver medal and has twice climbed the podium at the World Championships, an NCAA title has somehow eluded Alekna.

“The NCAA championship hasn’t been friendly to him,” Saatara conceded. “He really wants to do that. It’s going to be in Eugene and he really loves throwing there.”

“I need to win NCAAs for the first time, finally,” Alekna said. “I need to win for the school. What the school gave to me, I need to give it back.”

The NCAAs will barely be the halfway point of Alekna’s season. He expects to compete in several Diamond League meets in Europe and the Lithuanian championships in early August before the Worlds at Tokyo.

Predicted Saatara, “I think he’s going to have a great season.”

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