Ryan Crouser clinches shot put gold at World Athletics Championships
Jul 18, 2022
Oregon [US], July 18 : The two-time Olympic champion Ryan Crouser clinched the gold medal in World Championships on Sunday as he led the United States to a clean sweep in a dramatic shot put competition with a best throw of 22.94 metres.
Cheered on by a home crowd, he did exactly that and responded to Joe Kovacs' best throw of the night with a championship record of 22.94m to secure the gold medal and lead a US sweep of the podium.
All five of Crouser's valid throws landed beyond 22 metres. He opened with 22.21m to take an early lead, but later that round Kovacs started with 22.63m. Fellow Josh Awotunde, meanwhile, dispatched his shot out to a lifetime best of 22.24m to bump Crouser down into third place.
Crouser, the world record-holder, retrieved the lead in round two with a heave of 22.71m. World indoor champion Romani, meanwhile, improved to 21.90m to move into fourth place while Kovacs and Awotunde didn't enhance.
Crouser continued his amazing series with throws of 22.58m and 22.16m. Kovacs also landed two throws beyond 22 metres (22.17m and 22.16m), and Romani improved a little to 21.92m.
2017 world champion and bronze medallist in 2019 Tom Walsh landed a throw of 22.08m to move into fourth place and then Awotunde set another PB of 22.29m to confirm his third place. Inspired by those gains, Kovacs sent his shot flying out to 22.89m to push into the lead, a comfy 18 centimetres ahead of Crouser.
The pressure was then on Kovacs in the final round to respond. He performed a solid throw - 22.42m, his fifth 22-metre try- but this time it wasn't enough to displace Crouser at the top.
