Oklahoma Throws Women — Allman Improves AR In A “Side-Quest”

RAMONA, OKLAHOMA, April 12 — To AR-shattering effect, Valarie Allman pushed aside reservations she heeded last year about taking a trip to the Throw Town World Invitational. The venue, Don Millican Field on the dusty plains outside of Tulsa, is unparalleled as a setting for flying disci long on reliable big wind. As the ’24 meet famously played out, Mykolas Alekna whirled his platter to a destruction of the oldest major men’s WR on the books.

Allman had considered competing last year, but deferred at the last minute. As defending Olympic and Diamond League champion and arguably the best woman discus thrower in the world, she had no need to chase a standard and wasn’t keen to risk becoming the only thrower on the planet to come to Ramona and, to use the common metaphor, lay an egg.

This year the calculus was different.

After winning a second Olympic gold in Paris, Allman and her coach, Zeb Sion, decided that a trip to Tornado Alley might be warranted after all. Her “North Star” this season would remain the World Championships, but Allman says she and Sion came to realize that “the history books are their own accolades, and we wanted to challenge some records.” (Continued below)

Titles Are The Goal, Big Wind’s A Kick

ALLMAN AND SION — who are engaged — are jazzed to have raised her American Record and climbed higher on the all-time list. Their winning first trip to Ramona was an exhilarating setup for the coming Diamond League and Tokyo Worlds season.

Says Allman of the Throw Town World Invitational, “In 2024, we chose not to attend this meet because it didn’t align with our laser-focused goal of defending my Olympic title. All of our decisions were driven to set me up to achieve that goal and all global championships are contested in a stadium.”

From both a coaching and athlete execution perspective, the meet brought intriguing challenges.

“While navigating the wind can be tricky,” says Sion, “we decided to focus on Valarie executing her technique as if she was in a stadium as opposed to making changes to her movement. It was clear that getting the discus in the air was critical which is why her first throw, which was a 70% effort, still went 69.52m. Valarie’s 73m throw was a thing of beauty, and I…