Discus thrower Dani Stevens aiming to go long at national titles

Throw big, then go home. That’s been the pattern all season for former world discus champion Dani Stevens.

Discus thrower Dani Stevens preparing for the national titles in Sydney. Picture: John Feder

Throw big, then go home.

That’s been the pattern all ­season for former world discus champion Dani Stevens (nee Samuels), who has made her best-ever start to the year with an eye-catching series of throws around the country.

They include two identical throws in the last month that tie as her best performances on home soil, a 66.78m effort at the NSW ­titles last month and an equal distance at the Geelong throwers meet last weekend.

They are two of the three biggest throws in the world this year, only surpassed by Olympic champion Sandra Perkovic’s customary 70m opener in Split in February, and either would have won her an Olympic silver medal in Rio last August.

Stevens is by far the best-­performed Australian athlete of the domestic season but because her event was not included in the innovative Nitro series program in February, her outstanding form has gone under the radar until now.

But Stevens plans to lift the bar again at next week’s national titles in her “home circle’’ at Sydney Olympic Park, where she has a mammoth 67m throw in mind. “My expectations are always quite high at the nationals,’’ she said. “I’d like to throw further. It would be great to crack 67 metres or something beyond that. I just hope there isn’t a thunderstorm (quite likely on a Sunday afternoon in March in Sydney).’’

She wants to provide the fireworks herself, without comp­etition from nature, at Sydney Olympic Park, where she has a particularly good record and has been competing since she was in Little Athletics.

Stevens’ personal best of 67.77m was set in Shanghai last year, while the Romanian-born Daniela Costian’s national record stands at 68.72m.

“Personal bests come in good conditions so the weather will impact to some degree,’’ Stevens said.

“But I’ve been training in the wet and through showers for the last few weeks so I’m used to it.’’

Stevens admitted that her fourth place finish at last year’s Rio Olympics, where she fell 44cm short of the medals, had lit a fire under her. “Coming fourth at the Olympics is extremely motivating,’’ she said.

“I had eight weeks off training afterwards, which is twice as long as I normally have, and I thought it would take a bit longer to get back into training but it only took a ­couple of weeks to get back up to speed. We laid a lot of groundwork through 2014, 2015, 2016, so I think that’s helped too.’’

The final piece of the puzzle was her return to her home town of Sydney and her long-term coach Denis Knowles, after two years on the Gold Coast with her former fiancee, now husband, Jake Stevens.

They moved back to Sydney after the Olympics and Stevens said she felt happy and balanced off and on the athletics track.

“Moving back to Sydney and having a technical coach at every session we have been able refine my technique and get better consistency,’’ she said. Stevens’ aim for the year is to throw 65m or better at every competition “rain, hail or shine’’, a distance that will put her in medal contention no matter what the ­occasion.

She said having her best ­competition of the season at the national titles would give her more momentum to take into the international season.

“I used to train through nat­ionals without tapering but you can’t underestimate the confidence you get from finishing the domestic season on a high and taking that into Europe.’’

Stevens faces a tricky inter­national season because women’s discus has been omitted from all the Diamond League meets in ­Europe in July, leading into the world championships in London in August, so she has decided to do much of her preparation for the biggest meet of the year at home in Sydney. She will do some inter­national meets in May and June and then return to Australia.

She said she was looking ­forward to a change from the ­traditional European lead-up, and said that could be overrated. After three Olympic Games, she does not need the experience and the travel can be exhausting and ­disruptive. She recalled travelling for 12 hours to get to a competition with two other throwers last year, and catching a cold on the way back that she never really shook on the way to the Olympics.

“We will see how it goes at home,’’ she said.

Throw big and then go home. It’s a simple plan but it’s working so far.