KINGSTON, Jamaica — Roje Stona stunned a powerful field to win the gold medal in the men’s discus throw at the Olympic Games at Stade de France in Paris on Wednesday, setting a new Olympic record 70.00m in the process.

It was Jamaica’s first gold medal of the Games and first-ever gold medal in any throwing event at a major global championships at the senior level. It was also the second throwing medal at the Games after Rajindra Campbell won bronze in the shot put last weekend.

Stona’s big moment came in the fourth round when he unleashed his massive throw, moving him from sixth place to first place and eclipsing the Olympic record 69.89m set by Virgilijus Alekna of Lithuania at the 2004 Games in Athens, Greece.

He improved on his previous lifetime best 69.05m and is now second all-time on the Jamaican rankings behind national record holder Fedrick Dacres- 70.78m.

Mykolas Alekna, son of the former Olympic record holder and the current world record holder, was second with 69.97m and had just broken his father’s record before Stona’s big throw, while Australia’s Commonwealth Games champion Matthew Denny was third with 69.31m.

Three Jamaicans had made the final. Ralford Mullings finished ninth with 65.61m, just failing to get three additional throws, while Traves Smikle was 10th with 64.97m.

Fedrick Dacres won gold medals at the World Under -18 in 2011 in Ukraine in 2011 and Under -20 in Barcelona in 2012 and Kai Chang also won gold at the World Under -20 Championships in Finland in 2018.

— Paul A Reid