Australia's giant of discus, Queenslander Matthew Denny, hopes a few tweaks to his training program will put him on the road to becoming a consistent 70m-plus thrower.
Launching his domestic season at the Adelaide Invitational on February 11, the sixth-ranked discus thrower in the world is fine tuning his training to find that perfect sweet spot between weight, science and athleticism, hoping to consistently position himself as one of the top international campaigners.
"Science shows the relationship between weight and velocity and momentum. I'm still experimenting on weight, but I'm changing my program to add in more ballistics and athletics work," Denny said while taking a break from training this week.
At 1.96m (6'5"), Denny threw 67.02m at the Tokyo Olympics at 126kg, an agonising 5cm shy of bronze.
But he threw 67.28m at 134kg in Birmingham to claim Commonwealth Games gold.
Denny will hit Adelaide at around 124kg with a focus of reaching 120kg as the domestic season progresses and he loads his program towards the World Athletics Championships in Budapest later this year.
"There is a lot of trial and error. My goal is always to win, but I want to give 70m and more my best shot," said Denny who at 15 gave up a promising junior Rugby League career to concentrate on throws.
Away from athletics, Denny co-hosts the popular podcast The Roommates Rant with fellow Olympian, high-jumper Brandon Starc, and Athletics Australia's This Is Athletics podcast.
And a radio show with Nova has just been renewed.
"It's a real balance to training days, and something I really enjoy,'' said Denny who grew up in the small town of Allora near Toowoomba, training on a home-made discus circle and travelling round trips of hundreds of kilometres to compete.
Denny will be joined in the discus event at the Adelaide Invitational by locals and seasoned performer Lachlan Page.
Denny is one of many top-ranked athletics confirmed for the Adelaide Invitational, an event already shaping to surpass last year's success.
By Andrew Holman, Athletics South Australia
Posted: 25/2/2023
