Magic Moment: From basketballer to discus dominance
On Marshall Hall's retirement in 2020 he was the country’s all-time No 2 discus thrower, and even now his best of 64.55m, set in 2017, is still the country’s third-best mark.
Southland athletics has produced many magical moments so as part of a Tribune series we are recalling some of them. Today we look back at Marshall Hall’s remarkable discus dominance in New Zealand.
Marshall Hall was not only one of Southland’s most accomplished throwers ever, he was among the best in New Zealand. Eleven national senior discus championship medals, ten of them gold, proves it.
On his retirement in 2020 he was the country’s all-time No 2 discus thrower, and even now his best of 64.55 set in 2017 is still the country’s third best mark.
Marshall started out as a basketballer, making the NZ U18 team, but switched to discus following a series of back injuries. He won a couple of NZSS medals (bronze) without doing much discus training but when he teamed up with coach Raylene Bates, his career took off.
That was the start of eleven podium finishes at the national championships and representing New Zealand at 4 Oceania Champs (2 gold, 2 silver), the World University Games and the World Championships.
As reported in an Athletics New Zealand release, Marshall was presented by Roy Williams with a discus originally belonging to throwing legend Ludvík Daněk, who competed for Czechoslovakia and won gold, silver and bronze across four Olympics. He set three world records in discus, including in 1964 64.55m – the same as Marshall’s personal best.
Ludvík gave the discus to New Zealand Sports Hall of Famer Roy as a gift at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. Roy won the decathlon at the 1966 Commonwealth Games in Jamaica and also won the national discus title in 1956.
Marshall was a proud Invercargill club member and his black with silver fern NZ singlet is framed and displayed on the clubroom wall.
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