Report09 Mar 2012


EVENT REPORT - Men's Shot Put - Qualification

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Istanbul 2012 Logo (© IAAF)

Young giant David Storl (GER) and the veteran Reese Hoffa (USA) made short work of qualifying for the final of the men’s Shot Put.


Throwing third among the 23 athletes competing in just one pool, Hoffa made sure of a minimum stay in the qualifying competition when he smashed out a 21.23m put.


Storl followed the American into the circle but led him out of it, responding with his own effort of 21.43m, a season’s best. Poland’s Tomas Majewski produced a 21.17m in the second round, these three being the only ones to achieve the automatic qualifying distance of 20.70m.


Storl completed a hat-trick of World titles when he won in Daegu last year after earlier being World Youth and World Junior champion. He does not turn 22 until July and was the youngest man in qualifying.


The 34-year-old Hoffa, on the other hand, is a product of the tough school of US throwers. World Indoor champion in Moscow in 2006, he has been silver medallist behind teammate Christian Cantwell in both Budapest 2004 and Valencia 2008.


None of the medallists from Doha – Cantwell,  Andrei Mikhnevich (BLR) and Ralf Bartels (GER) – is back, so there is guaranteed to be a new set of medallists in Friday night’s final.


Dylan Armstrong (CAN), fourth in Doha, was the major casualty of qualifying, his 19.84m leaving him 20 centimetres short of the eighth and final spot in the field.


Majewski, the Beijing 2008 Olympic champion, was fifth in Doha and will be looking to return to the medallists’ dais.


German Lauro (ARG), Ryan Whiting (USA), Rutger Smith (NED) and the Russian pair Ivan Yushkov and Maksim Sidorov gained the other places in the final, though Sidorov needed a last-gasp 20.14m to move up from a non-qualifying position after the first two rounds.


Len Johnson for the IAAF


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