ZA­GREB, Croa­t­ia – Ja­maica’s Ro­je Stona, the reign­ing 2024 Olympic dis­cus cham­pi­on, is set to head­line the men’s dis­cus throw at the 74th Boris Hanžeković Memo­r­i­al, where he will face some of the world’s top ath­letes in the sport.

Fresh off his Olympic vic­to­ry with a record-set­ting 70.00-me­ter throw, Stona has been train­ing in­tense­ly in Za­greb, ready to end his sea­son on a high note at the SP Mla­dost sta­di­um on Sep­tem­ber 8.

“I’m giv­ing this my all since it’s my fi­nal com­pe­ti­tion of the sea­son,” Stona stat­ed. “The same elite group from Paris will be here, so I’m ex­pect­ing a tough com­pe­ti­tion with some long throws. Weath­er per­mit­ting, I’m aim­ing to break the meet­ing record of 68.87 me­ters. Last week, I man­aged 67.85 me­ters, so my goal is to push be­yond 68 me­ters, maybe even more.”

Stona’s path to vic­to­ry won’t be easy, as he faces stiff com­pe­ti­tion from for­mer world cham­pi­on Krist­jan Čeh. Čeh, who has thrown 70.48 me­ters this year and boasts a per­son­al best of 71.86 me­ters, claimed vic­to­ry in Za­greb last year with a throw of 68.48 me­ters and is a strong con­tender for the ti­tle.

The com­pe­ti­tion will al­so fea­ture Matthew Den­ny, the 2024 Olympic bronze medal­ist, who has record­ed a 69.35-me­ter throw this sea­son, and Reg­gie Jaegers III, with a sea­son-best of 69.16 me­ters. Adding to the ex­cite­ment is Croa­t­ia’s own Mar­tin Marković, the na­tion’s top dis­cus throw­er, mak­ing this a high­ly an­tic­i­pat­ed event where throws could sur­pass 70 me­ters.

CMC