By Tania Phillips
The lights were on and everyone was glued to their television as Allora’s Matt Denny threw his heart and soul into his discus final as part of the Paris Olympics track and field program.
And the townsfolk both at home (and the contingent that were there to cheer him on in the stadium) weren’t disappointed with the 28-year-old Australian champion bringing home the bronze.
The only one maybe a little disappointed was Denny’s harshest critic – himself – with the athlete vowing he wants to continue on in discus for the Brisbane Olympics in eight years time when he will be 36. He said it was a tough competition and it was hard to figure out how he felt about the result.
“I can’t not be proud of my performance but the critic in me always wants more and I know there’s more there,” he said in an interview with Channel Nine after the event.
“There’s small opportunities in life to get stuff like this so to get a medal is amazing but the critic is still there in me.
“We’ll go again. My goal is to get to Brisbane in 2032.”
Ranked third in the world going into the Olympics Denny sent the discus 69.31metres (just short of his PB) in the final to put himself in a strong position for a medal. However, second generation discus champion Lithuanian Mykolas Alekna beat his father’s Olympic record with a throw of 69.97m to take the lead before the big surprise of the final when Jamaican Roje Stona, who qualified in eighth, claimed the gold with a throw of 70m on the dot.
“If you told me the comp was going to go the way it did today, I wouldn’t have said no, but the way it all played out I didn’t expect,” Denny said.
“I’m super happy with it and how I competed. I had fun. It’s not the result I’m exactly looking for, but I wasn’t far off winning the gold.”
He said it was a “step in the right direction” and better than his fourth in Tokyo and he was proud of what he and his team had done. Denny said he fought to the end.
His mother and wife and a loud contingent of Allora residents – some with T Shirts with their heroes face on it – were in the stands to watch and cheer him on. And Denny admitted he had watched the Qantas add they filmed in Allora before the event to see everyone again.
And back at home in Allora – where he used to practise on a homemade discus circle on the family farm – the whole town seemed to be up early to cheer on their favourite son. In fact, they were already making plans for a welcome home party to top their street parade after Tokyo according to Allora Sports Museum president Perry Cronin.
“He really did well – that guy from Jamaica though – god what a throw,” Cronin said in an early morning interview.
“We’re did he find that? It was unbelievable, you ended up in eighth place and all of a sudden you snatch an Olympic record. But Matty’s got bronze, that’s pretty good, I’d hate to have seen him miss the bronze it would have been devastating after the Tokyo event. He put in his best. I was just watching (the interviews) his mother and wife were on TV, they were at the back. But they had a little entourage of Allora people there, cheering him on. They just interviewed them on TV. One of the Higgin’s fellas had a T Shirt with Matty’s full face right over it. A giant Matt Denny looking at you.”
He said despite the contingent of local’s in Paris– yes there were still plenty of people left in Allora.
“Looking around the place there were plenty of lights on this morning, so they were all up looking at it,” Cronin laughed.
“I’m very proud of him it’s wonderful. We’ll be doing something when he gets back – not real sure what. We were talking about it yesterday. We just had our community hall reopened so we’ve got a venue to have it at. We just don’t know what sort of form it’s going to take. Last time he came home we had a street parade for him which packed the town. I’d imagine that we’ll do that again but how we end up for the night, I’m not too sure yet but we’ll have a committee together and work something out.
“He really is Allora’s favourite son – it’s wonderful!”
