Olympic discus finalist Matt Denny made sure he didn't suffer the fate of being the nearly man again as he produced a meet record at the Sydney Track Classic.
Competing for the first time since finishing fourth at the Tokyo Olympics, where he was just five centimetres off the bronze medal, Denny was 14cm off his meet record going into the final round at Sydney Olympic Park Athletic Centre on Saturday night.
The 25-year-old Queenslander then produced a throw of 64m64cm to eclipse his own meet record, set in 2020, by 44cm.
"I had no expectations tonight, but I didn't want to end the night on the word of 'Matt Denny is short again like Tokyo', so I wanted to find that extra gear and I did," Denny told AAP.
Denny said he had a tough time mentally after his near miss at the Olympics.
"It was tough because my brain was kind of confused like 'you should be happy, but you're not' and the whole post-Games blues thing was pretty tough, just going from everything to nothing and then home quarantine," Denny said.
"It was an interesting process, but I learnt a lot. I've developed a lot as a person."
Another fourth place finisher in Tokyo, 800m star Peter Bol won his pet event in 1m46.03s from New Zealander James Preston (1:46:25) and Japan's Mikuto Kaneko (1:47:29).
'I was comfortable, felt good, most importantly I finished strong so happy with that," Bol said.
Tokyo Olympics 100m hurdles semi-finalist Liz Clay warmed up for her appearance in the 60 metre hurdles at next weekend's world indoor championships in Belgrade with a win over the longer distance in 12.92s.
"I think there's not much pressure on indoors because I haven't run (indoors) before but it's a great opportunity for me to go and race against the world's best," Clay told AAP.
"I just want to go over there and have a great time and run as best I can."
Another Olympian to win in Sydney was 400m runner Alex Beck, who clocked 46.24.
In form Queenslander Ella Connolly pulled of a double, winning the 100m (11.37) and 400m (52.21).
One of the meet highlights came in the women's 800m with Tokyo Olympic 400m runner Bendere Oboya (2:01:02) just holding off 16-year-old Victorian Claudia Hollingsworth (2:02:34).
Nineteen-year-old Queenslander Jude Thomas won the men's national 3000m final in 7:47:26, holding off Cameron Griffith by four-hundredths of a second, while Rose Davies of NSW won the women's title in 9:06:35.
New Zealander Eddie Osei-Nketia won the men's 100m in 10.30 from Tasmanian Jack Hale (10.40).
