By Tania Phillips
There will be a lot of night owls in Allora (and across the region) as Matt Denny competes in the final of the discus at the Paris Olympics tonight/early tomorrow morning.
The official program has his competition at 4.45am, the ABC suggests getting up at 4.25am. Whatever the time – all eyes will be on the 28-year old Allora local, currently ranked third in the world in the event.
This is the Commonwealth Games gold medallist and Australian record holders third Olympic games and his best chance of a medal. He didn’t make the finals in Rio, and narrowly missed a bronze in Tokyo with experts suggesting he may stand on the podium tomorrow morning.
Denny broke the national record at the Australian championships in April with a personal best throw of 69.35 metres but will face tough opposition from the Lithuanian world record holder Mykolas Alekna (with a PB five metres better than the Australian) who cruised through to the finals.
If he makes the podium tonight expect a heroes welcome at Allora – they already have a larger than life mural on Railway Hotel in Allora with the words “You’ve already made us proud, Matt”.
Allora Sports Museum president Perry Cronin said there would not be watch parties due to the time of the final but he promised that the popular athlete would receive a heroes welcome whatever the result.
“He’s a good fella,” Cronin said.
“He’s our first Olympian and not only that, this is his third Olympics.”
