Matthew Denny

Growing up in the small town of Allora (population 1000), located 60km outside Toowoomba and 150km south-west of Brisbane, Matthew Denny had lots of space to throw things. Through his teens Matthew developed into one of the finest junior throwers in Australian history, training out of the QE2 Track Club. He dominated the record books and national title lists. He was also impressive internationally, winning the World Youth (U18) Championships discus title in 2013, followed by finishing fourth the year after at the 2014 World Junior (U20) Championships. He also won a silver medal at the Universiade in 2015. Determined to qualify for the Rio 2016 Olympics he travelled twice to the US for competitions, eventually qualifying with a mark of 65.37m to move him to fifth on the all-time Australian list. At the Olympics in Rio he threw 61.16m in the qualifying round. Matthew became the second Australian athlete to compete in both events at the Commonwealth Games and the first in 68 years, following Keith Pardon who did it at the 1938 and 1950 British Empire Games. At the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games Matthew won silver in the hammer throw with a Personal Best 74.88m and was fourth in the discus. At Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games he set a new PB of 67.02m on his final throw to place fourth, 5cm from bronze. His result was Australia's best ever at an Olympic Games, surpassing Benn Harradine's 64m and ninth place at London 2012.