Previews14 Jul 2016


Preview: men's shot put – IAAF World U20 Championships Bydgoszcz 2016

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Konrad Bukowiecki in the shot put at the IAAF World Junior Championships Oregon 2014 (© Getty Images)

The question heading into this event is not who will win, but how far will Konrad Bukowiecki win the title by?

Bukowiecki is already on the cusp of senior stardom and the Pole will be looking to cap his glorious junior career by retaining his world U20 title on home soil. As well as winning the world U20 title in Eugene two years ago, Bukowiecki is also the European junior champion.

The only notable thing Bukowiecki hasn’t achieved is an outdoor world U20 record with the 6kg implement. But in what could be Bukowiecki’s last competition throwing with the lighter shot, he could surpass Jacko Gill’s mark of 23.00m.

Bukowiecki is within touching distance of Gill’s mark with his world-leading distance of 22.94m. He leads the 2016 world U20 list by a whopping 1.79m ahead of Romania’s Andrei Toader (21.15m) and only six other throwers have come within three metres of Bukowiecki’s world-leading mark.

Poland might claim a brace of medals with Szymon Mazur ranked fourth on this year’s world U20 list with 20.22m, just one centimetre behind Norway’s Marcus Thomsen. But it would be the shock of the championships if someone were to beat Bukowiecki.

For good reason, he is touted as the hottest prospect in the event since Germany’s David Storl and a worthy successor to two-time Olympic champion Tomasz Majewski who is approaching the end of his career.

Steven Mills for the IAAF

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