Discus inferno: Australia's Denny eyes Tokyo throwdown with world record holder Alekna

MELBOURNE :Australian discus king Matt Denny is chasing his first world championships medal in Tokyo and will do it alongside the man he regards as both the benchmark and a drinking buddy: world record holder Mykolas Alekna.

Denny and the 22-year-old Lithuanian took the sport to new heights with the benefit of tailwinds at an event in Ramona, Oklahoma, in April and will battle again at Tokyo National Stadium this weekend.

"We're vicious competitors and there's banter - but we're not vicious in tongue," Denny told Reuters of his relationship with Alekna.

"He's a good kid. He was very quiet when he first hit the Diamond Leagues (DL), but I’ve brought him out of his shell a bit.

"We went out after the Brussels DL, had a few beers - fun night. Some guys mix, some don’t. For us, we’ve got a great relationship."

At "Throw Town" in Ramona, Alekna smashed his own world record with a heave of 75.56m, which triggered some questions about the venue's engineered design.

Unlike track events and the horizontal jumps, discus has no limits on wind assistance when validating records.

Denny, 29, was not far behind Alekna in Oklahoma, throwing 74.78m to beat his personal best.

The pair may not match the fireworks they produced in Middle America but will back themselves to stand on the podium again a year on from the Paris Games where they both earned their first Olympic medals.

Alekna took silver and Denny the bronze behind Jamaica's surprise winner Roje Stona.

Alekna has already claimed two world medals, bronze in Budapest behind Swedish winner Daniel Stahl in 2023, a year after being second to Slovene Kristjan Ceh at Eugene, Oregon.

It helps that his dad Virgilijus is among the sport's all-time greats, a winner of back-to-back Olympic golds at