Valerie Adams in the womens Shot Put at the IAAF World Athletics Championships Moscow 2013 (© Getty Images)
It was a short morning’s work for three of the most likely medal contenders: New Zealand’s Valerie Adams, Russia’s Yevgeniya Kolodko and China’s Gong Lijiao, as the trio qualified for Monday evening’s final with their first efforts.
Adams produced the best distance of the morning, the reigning Olympic and World champion stepping into the circle and sending her implement out to 19.89m, well over the automatic qualifying distance of 18.70m.
Earlier in the first round of group A, London 2012 Olympic Games silver medallist Kolodko putted 19.55m and Gong reached 18.88m.
The other expected medal contenders all had to step into the ring at least twice but, in the end, there were no shocks and the top 10 in the world on the 2013 lists prior to Moscow all progressed to the final.
Looking in good form was US champion and the 2012 IAAF World Indoor Championships bronze medallist Michelle Carter who, after one relatively modest effort of 18.29m which would have still seen her threw to the final, found her rhythm and went out to 19.76m for the second best mark of the day.
In similar fashion, Germany’s 2103 European Athletics Indoor Championships gold medallist Christina Schwanitz shortly afterwards putted 19.18m, after a first attempt of 18.06m to complete the quartet of women who went over 19 metres in Sunday morning’s qualifying competition.
The five were the only women over the automatic qualifying distance and consolidated their position as the top five in the world this year, by some margin.
By contrast to the top five, one woman who had a nervous time was the 12th and final qualifier, Belarusian Alena Kopets.
Kopets achieved 17.87m but is sixth on the 2013 world list and a 19.24m performer at her best this season. She only just scraped into the final thanks to having a better second effort than Germany’s Josephine Terlecki, who produced the same distance in the first round but then had two fouls.
The only moderate surprise was that Romania’s Anca Heltne was more than a metre down on her season’s best and failed to make the final after only reaching 17.76m, to finish 15th overall in the qualifying competition.
Another women well down on her season’s best of 18.67m, and who might have had ambitions of making the final, was Bulgaria’s Radoslava Mavrodieva, who had three efforts over 17 metres but whose best was just 17.34m.
Phil Minshull for the IAAF
