SBS VICELAND and will provide all the action from August 19-27, with live and free coverage of all sessions, as well as full replays, extended highlights and more available for Australian audiences.
Denny endured a difficult discus final at the 2022 World Championships, having salvaged sixth place with an attempt almost five metres fewer than the gold medal mark set by Slovenia’s Kristjan Ceh.
The Australian would later make amends at the Commonwealth Games, though not even a personal best effort of 67.26 metres – enough to win gold – could ease the pain of what he described as his most maddening memory as an athlete.
“Excuse the French but last year p*ssed me off. I should have thrown further than what I did,” Denny told SBS Sport.
“I was in 68-high form, I warmed up with 68-high in the qualifying and did it easily. I thought, ‘OK, well this is going to be a year to go to 69, 70’, but I just couldn’t find the timing in the final.
“I was upset by that, that really burnt. That was probably one of the most burning, frustrating performances of my life.
“So, yeah, that’s still deep in my head, deep in the heart of frustration, and I think making amends for that this year would be really, really important to me.”
Dale Stevenson is the man behind Denny’s pursuit of redemption in Budapest, where the focus will be on “horsepower” and the perfect balance between high velocity and elasticity.
Stevenson’s approach prompted a coaching change in February and helped put an end to a three-month regime that revolved around ballistic training and weight loss.
Since then, the aim of the game has been to manage movement and cues from the throwing circle; to prioritise technique and seek the subtle tweaks that provide an advantage.
It’s been a fruitful partnership thus far, in truth, with Denny fresh off the fifth-furthest throw of his career (66.84m) at the Meeting International Schifflange in Luxembourg last month.
Only seven other throws have reached a greater distance this year which suggests the 27-year-old is hitting form just in time for a reunion with rivals Ceh, Daniel Stahl (Sweden) and Mykolas Alekna (Lithuania).
“I think having that (experience) plus the new processes that I’ve got, in the way that we’ve been preparing and being in that top-level form that I think I am in – you know, I want to win,” he said.
“I’m not going there to participate. I respect what these guys have done, they’ve thrown further than you, but I don’t really care.
“At the end of the day when it’s a major Championships, anyone can win – on the day, anything can happen.
“A lot of people can crack under pressure, but I think that I’m in good enough form to definitely medal but also go that one step further.”
Olympic gold medallist Stahl denied Denny victory at the most recent Diamond League competition in London, but that hasn’t deterred the Queenslander’s drive to do even better in Budapest. In fact, it’s only motivated him to make good on the work he’s put in with Stevenson.
“I think I’ve got a real burning desire to do something really good,” he added.
“It’s just (about) doing it, really, about having fun with that process, and freeing myself up and being able to laugh in the face of that stress, potential and outcome, and just let it happen.
“If it happens, it happens; if it doesn’t, it doesn’t, I’ll just enjoy the process and it should hopefully come out.”
