Olympic Track and Field 2016: Men's Discus Throw Medal Winners, Scores, Results

Germany's Christoph Harting took the gold medal in the men's discus throw at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro on Saturday, beating favourite Piotr Malachowski of Poland with his final throw.

Malachowski took the lead with his fist throw and seemed to be on his way to an easy win, as he cleared 67 metres on three occasions while the rest of the field couldn't do it even once.

But Harting, the younger brother of the defending champion Robert Harting, saved the best for last, clearing 68 metres to take the gold. Malachowski finished second, while Estonia's Martin Kupper won the bronze.

Here's a look at the three medalists, as well as their best throws:

Gold	Silver	Bronze
Christoph Harting (GER)	Piotr Malachowski (POL)	Martin Kupper (EST)
68.37 metres	67.55 metres	67.05 metres

Recap

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Malachowski was the clear favourite entering the final, as the Polish star had the two best throws of the year under his belt and also took top honours in qualifying. Former Olympian Katharine Merry thought he'd finish the job:

Defending champion Robert Harting did not qualify for the final, but his younger brother Christoph finished qualifying with the third-best mark, and he was seen as one of Malachowski's top competitors.

Daniel Jasinski took the early lead with a throw of 65.77 metres, before Malachowski blew his mark off the top of the leaderboard with a 67.32 bomb. Athletics Weekly assumed he was happy with that:

Christoph Harting's first attempt fell almost a meter short of Malachowski's mark, and from the very start, none of the athletes in the field seemed capable of coming even close to 67-metres mark. Jasinski settled into third place after the first round, beating Gerd Kanter by 67 centimetres.

Jasinski's second attempt went foul, before Malachowski crossed the 67-metres mark again and Christoph Harting failed to even clear 63 metres. 

In the background, Mason Finley, the only contender not from Europe, found himself stuck in last place after two rounds, while Zoltan Kovago remained in contention for a medal but had to bridge a gap of more than a metre.

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Jasinski cleared 66 metres with his third attempt, while Malachowski improved his score, hitting 67.55 metres to take the lead. Finley passed Andrius Gudzius with a throw of 62.05 metres, but he still needed to bridge 4.03 metres to even get on the podium.

The fourth round didn't see any movement at the top of the standings, and neither Christoph Harting nor Jasinski managed to come close to Malachowski in the fifth. Kupper did inject some excitement into the competition by beating Jasinski's throw, recording a best distance of 66.34 metres that put him in third place.

The final round proved to be decisive, however, as Christoph Harting recorded a fantastic throw of 68.37 metres to take the lead, and Malachowski couldn't respond, failing to clear 66 metres.