Allora’s Matt Denny goes within centimetres of securing medal at Tokyo Olympics

Personal best from Allora discus thrower Matt Denny wasn’t enough as he goes heartbreakingly close to securing Olympic medal.

Matt Denny. Photo: Michael Steele/Getty Images

OLYMPIC GAMES: Five centimetres is all that stood between Matt Denny and an Olympic medal.

The Allora athlete produced an inspirational effort in the final of the discus, throwing a personal best of 67.02 metres.

A throw of 65.94m saw him progress to the final eight, as competitors tried to chase down Swedish powerhouse Daniel Stahl’s mark of 68.90m.

Needing to better Austria’s Lukas Weisshaidinger’s mark of 67.07m to secure a medal, Denny threw a personal best in his last throw, but unfortunately it was just five centimetres short of the mark, seeing him finish in fourth.

“Five centimetres. Less than a beer can. I definitely need a gin or two after this,” Denny said.

“Yeah, it hurts. I’m happy – best performance by an Australian male in athletics at an Olympics, but my goal is not to do that, it’s to win, to do my best and I knew I had more there so it just kills.

“I hit it and I knew it was good. I knew it was better but yeah, it felt like a while that’s for sure.

“To know I was just off and to see that four … four sucks. Fourth sucks man.”

RUGBY SEVENS MISS MEDALS

The campaign of our Rugby Sevens girls to defend their Rio crown came to a conclusion after a narrow quarterfinal defeat.

Finishing second in their pool saw Australia take on a progressive Fiji, who opened up a 14-0 lead.

The reigning gold medallists hit back with two tries of their own, but ultimately fell short 14-12.

That saw Australia advance to the 5-8 seeding matches, where they downed the Russia Olympic Committee 35-7 and then the United States 17-7, with Toowoomba’s Demi Hayes scoring and Dominique Du Toit with a try assist.

BEACH VOLLEYBALLERS ONTO NEXT ROUND

Kingaroy’s Taliqua Clancy and Mariafe Artacho del Solar advanced through to the round of 16 in the beach volleyball.

Two wins and a loss from their pool games saw them finish second in their pool.

That saw them advance to the round of 16, where tonight they take on Chinese pair Chen Xue and Xinxin Wang.