Brianna Theisen Eaton in the womens Heptathlon Shot Put at the IAAF World Championships Moscow 2013 (© Getty Images)
After a very good Heptathlon High Jump competition, very little happened in the next event, the Shot Put. Most of the athletes were at their usual level with only a couple of favourites falling back from their previous results and no-one produced a big result to create an impact on the overall scores.
As expected, German Julia Machtig was the top putter in this field, winning the event with a mark of 15.48m. This performance moves her up a massive 15 places to 16th with 2685 points after three events, but she might have needed a bit more to be able to rise to the medals during day two.
Ukrainian Hanna Melnychenko is still leading with 2919 points and achieved a solid 13.85m result in the Shot Put. The 29-year-old still looks to be in gold medal contention and leads the competition with 37 points before Sharon Day. The US champion did what she had to after a disappointing High Jump and unleashed a 14.35m putt to move into second place with 2882 points.
Eighteen-year-old Nafissatou Thiam is in third with 2867 after she converted two poor marks in the Shot Put to a decent third-round effort of 13.71m. The Belgian is not ready to challenge for a medal here and will likely drop down in the rankings during the next few events.
In fourth place, Brianne Theisen Eaton of Canada is however one to watch for the medals. She had a 13.07m Shot Put result for a score of 2847 after three events and will feature in the fight for medals during day two.
Czech Eliska Klucinova continued well with a 14.19m Shot Put and is in fifth place with 2844 points while 2012 European champion Antoinette Nana Djimou is in fifth now after she achieved a 14.54m mark in the third event.
German Claudia Rath is now in seventh with 2778 points (12.88m shot) and she is one of the athletes who should rise in the rankings later in the Heptathlon. Dutch Dafne Schippers was almost a metre down on her usual performances in the Shot with 12.91m and is now in ninth place with 2742 points. In such a close competition, that may prove to be a costly mistake, keeping her out of the medal hunt ahead of her best event, the 200m.
Mirko Jalava for the IAAF
