ESPOO, Finland – The reigning European discus champion will once again take to the circle this week in pursuit of another major win, as California track & field star Mykolas Alekna will be a massive favorite to bring home the crown at this year's European U23 Championships. Although he has another year to prepare for his senior title defense due to the main European Championships being held once every two years, the 20-year-old Lithuanian can still make a huge statement this week in his first appearance at this particular meet.
 
Alekna, who currently ranks third in this year's World Athletics standings, set the European U23 record at the 128th Big Meet in Berkeley earlier this year with a massive throw of 71.00m (232-11). He posted a mark of 66.91m (219-6) at his last competition, a clash of the world's top discus throwers at the BAUHAUS-galan Diamond League meet in Stockholm, Sweden.
 
At the 2022 European Championships, Alekna threw a meet-record 69.78m (228-1) on his way to the gold medal; at this go-around, he will attempt to take down the U23 Championships record of 67.48m (221-4), set by Slovenia's Kristjan Čeh in 2021.
 
Qualifying Group A, headlined by Alekna, will commence at Leppävaara Stadium in Espoo, Finland, on Thursday at 2:05 a.m. PT; should he qualify for the final, he will throw again on Saturday at 12:50 a.m. The second- and third-best qualifying marks both belong to throwers in Group B, with Germany's Steven Richter bearing a season best of 65.88m (216-1) and Greece's Dimitrios Pavlidis sitting at 64.90m (212-11).

STAY POSTED
For complete coverage of Cal track & field, follow the Bears on Twitter (@CalTFXC), Instagram (@caltfxc) and Facebook (@Cal Cross Country/Track and Field).