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The American record holder in the women’s discus also won the event at the US Olympic Trials last month. Since then, she has become one of the top competitors in her game.Īllman has set a world-leading US record of 70.15m in last year, becoming the 25th member of the event’s exclusive 70-meter club. The 26-year-old Stanford graduate won her first gold medal at the Toyota 2019 USA Track and Field Outdoor Championships with a discus throw of 64.34 meters. She qualified for the Olympics just this year. At 66.42 meters, she not only beat the required qualifying distance of 64 meters, but she upstaged every other female thrower in just one try.īefore the 2020 Olympics even began, Allman was one of the favorites for the event.
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Silver Creek’s athlete managed to qualify for the Olympic women’s discus finals in her very first attempt in Group B. She qualified for the Olympic finals with an opening throw of 66.42 meters, almost 3m further than anyone else. Allman works year-round with her coach to ensure her discus throws are angled accurately. The fascinating aspect of this sport is how the technique is more important than strength. Allman spends time focussing on her posture, her nutrition and works on her back strength. The quality of how the player stands determines how the throw is and as a result the stance and back angle is critical. The sport was her big passion and she believes in a solid fitness regime.Īllman, like other discus throwers, spends a lot of time focussing on back exercises. “I am just getting worse at a slower rate than my competitors,” he said.Īlready looking ahead to the next age bracket, Busch said, “If I am still throwing when I am 80, then I’ll be young again and have a shot at more records.She studied at Silver Creek School and then went to the University of Texas. Busch explained that most masters throwers lose a meter a year after age 65, while he has lost only a third of that. Within seven years, he was throwing more than 150 feet again and winning national competitions. Switching it up on the spot, Busch won his first competition with a throw of 117 feet. He began practicing with his 2kg discus from college, only to be told when he arrived at the meet that masters over 60 only threw a 1kg disc. Although he continued to jog and play basketball, he didn’t think about taking up discus again until he saw a newspaper ad about a masters competition close to his home in Greenwich, Conn. After spinning twice, “you have to be on balance and have a solid connection between all of your major muscles - in your foot, leg, torso, shoulder, and arm - all working together to create an explosive force,” he said.Īfter graduation, Busch began a 40-year career as a public accountant and financial manager, eventually becoming CFO at a beverage company. In addition to his physique, Busch attributes his success to meticulous attention to technique. Within weeks he’d broken every school record and gone on to win the state championship.īusch continued to throw at Colgate, and in April 1962, he set a college record of 165 feet and 8 inches, which still stands today. At 6 feet, 3 inches, with long arms, he was a natural. When a botched medical operation on his arm in high school benched him from the baseball team his senior year, he turned in desperation to the track coach, who introduced him to the discus. As a child growing up in Short Hills, N.J., he always had a ball in his hand. “If you had told me then that I would win the national championships, set a national record, and win a world championship, I would have thought that inconceivable,” he said.īut Busch has been thwarting expectations his whole life. The season was a triumph for Busch, who had shelved his discus after Colgate and didn’t pick it up again until 2002. The second-place thrower that day lagged 12 feet behind. Then, last fall, he again won gold at the World Masters Athletics Championships in Perth, Australia, with a throw that flew to 141 feet, 8 inches.
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Three weeks later, he won the USATF Masters National Championship in Grand Rapids, Mich., with a throw of 140 feet, 7 inches. It sailed 143 feet, 10 inches at the USA Track and Field (USATF) East Region Championships in Chester, Pa., breaking an American record for throwers age 75–79 that had been set seven years earlier.īut Busch wasn’t done yet. As he unwound his body and hurled the round metal disc, he knew immediately the throw was a good one - but he had no idea how good. Standing under a brilliant blue sky last June, Roger Busch ’63 twisted his torso and cocked the discus in his hand. Photo by J Gregory Raymond At age 76, Roger Busch ’63 is still breaking records.