Category Archives: Meets

The Monday Morning Meathead: June 26th Edition

Photo by me!

Two walks

“Everyone you meet here is someone.”

That’s what my friend Sean Denard, the throws coach at UCLA, told me one morning recently as we sipped iced tea in a hotel lobby in Austin, Texas.

We were in town for the 2023 NCAA meet, Sean to coach, me to spectate, and we’d found a pleasant place to relax during the heat of the day.

I’d been telling Sean about my walk home from the track the night before. Mike Myers stadium was a straight shot from our hotel, maybe a twenty-minute stroll along one of the avenues that connect the University of Texas campus with downtown Austin. 

But I have a terrible sense of direction, and after getting up at 4:30am for my flight, then scrambling around in the sweltering heat all evening covering the men’s hammer, javelin and shot comps, I found myself at 10:30pm wobbling along a nearly deserted street unsure of whether or not it would lead me back to the Westin. 

Luckily, I was not completely alone. There was one man walking in the same direction about twenty meters ahead, and a traffic light delayed him long enough for me to catch up. 

“Hello!” I said  “Is this the way to the downtown area?”

“Yes,” he replied, “I think so.”

That was invitation enough for me, and I fell into step alongside him.

I assumed he too had come from the meet, and he had. It turns out he coached at Maryland, so we spoke about their shot putter Jeff Kline who had finished 19th in that night’s comp. We spoke about the ways that joining the Big 10 Conference had changed Maryland athletics, and how the addition of USC and UCLA might cause further changes. We spoke of the difficulty universities face in balancing athletic opportunities for men and women. We spoke of the problem of homelessness that plagues Austin and so many other American cities. Before long, I’d forgotten about feeling tired and lost.

Then a car passed us and stopped at a light. 

“Hey,” my new acquaintance exclaimed. “That car has no driver!”

My first thought was, “Well, I’m not the only one delirious from the heat.” But I looked and saw he was right. It was a medium-sized car, white with cameras attached to the roof and nobody behind the wheel. The light changed and off it went, as did my new friend when he spotted his hotel one avenue over.

“He was a really nice guy,” I told Denard the next day. 

“That was Andrew Valmon,” he informed me. “You were walking with an Olympian.”

Denard was right. Andrew Valmon was not only an Olympian but, according to my Google machine, a two time gold-medalist in the 4×400 relay. He also helped set a World Record in that event at the 1993 World Championships.

Which got me thinking. Coach Valmon is a World Record holder, and I was able to catch up to him on our walk from the stadium. And not many people know this, but a couple of years ago I defeated 2016 Olympic discus champ Chris Harting in a spirited game of air hockey. Was this a trend? Could it be that I am just now entering my athletic prime?  Something to contemplate.

The second walk took place two days later. My wife Alice accompanied me on the trip to Austin but stayed back at the hotel on the first two nights of competition as she is averse to watching strangers run, jump and throw in 95-degree heat. The night of the discus final, though, was also the night of the men’s 5,000 meters, whose field included Parker Wolfe, the grandson of my wife’s beloved cousin. 

Parker ran a great race, so Alice was in fine spirits on our walk back to the Westin after the meet. The only thing that could make the night even better for her was making new friends and telling them about Parker. 

That’s how we ended up talking with Andrew Ferris, a distance coach at Iona. He happened to be walking in the same direction. He happened to pause at the same intersection. He happened to look like a distance guy. He stood no chance of avoiding us.

Before the light changed, Coach Ferris knew all about Parker, and we knew that Coach Ferris was originally from Australia. And you know how Australians are often stereotyped as good, friendly people? Coach Ferris fit that mold. When he found out I was a throws guy, he told me about his home club and how it served as sort of a throwing hub in Australia. 

“Lots of throwers stop by to train,” he said. “Koji Murofushi did a camp there once.”

Speaking of Australian stereotypes, I couldn’t resist asking him about another.

“I have to know,” I interjected as we resumed our stroll. “How in the hell do Australians survive when just about every creature there wants to kill you?’

“Ah, we’re used to it,” he replied, with a laugh. “But, you know which animal kills the most tourists?”

My wife never passes up a chance to disparage snakes, so that was her guess. I went with crocodiles.

“Nope. Conch shells.”

We were shocked.

“Yep. Tourists see a conch, they reach down to pick it up, but they don’t realize the creature inside of it is poisonous. Touch one, and you’re dead in fifteen minutes. Can’t get to a hospital in fifteen minutes, can you? Here’s my hotel.”

We wished Coach Ferris good night and good luck for the rest of the meet and on any future visits home as well. He shared one more quick story before we parted.

“When I was a little kid,” he told us, “maybe seven or eight years old, I was riding my bike and saw what I thought was a stick poking up from the ground. I smacked the stick with my hand, but it turned out to be a snake, an eastern brown snake, the most poisonous in Australia. I smacked it right in its head, but for some reason it didn’t bite me. I’d have been a goner if he had, so I’m lucky to even be here. Nice meeting you!”

With that, Coach Ferris disappeared into his hotel. But he wasn’t the only one feeling fortunate. Sometimes it takes a close encounter with a poisonous snake or killer conch to make a guy appreciate his luck, but for me walking hand in hand with my favorite person towards a cold beer on a sweltering night was reminder enough.

All in due time

This was Cal shot putter Jeff Duensing’s meet progression during the 2023 outdoor season:

18 March: 18.75m

1 April: 18.91m

15 April: 18.06m

29 April: 18.81m

13 May: 18.94M

24 May: 19.80m

7 June: 19.98m 

The 19.98m was more than a meter farther than his 2022 outdoor PB, and he hit that big throw when it counted the most: at the recent NCAA Championships.

Jeff Duensing competes in the Men’s Shot Put during the 2023 NCAA Track & Field Championships in Austin, TX. (Photo credit: Brendan Maloney / KLC fotos)

Every thrower dreams of having a huge breakthrough at the most important time of the year, so when I saw Jeff’s coach, Mo Saatara, the next day I asked him how they’d managed it.

“He finally believed me that he could throw far with rhythm,” Mo replied, and we shared a nice laugh but I needed more detail. Inquiring minds and all that. So I called Mo a few days later and he filled me in. 

“Every year,” he told me, “I sit down with my throwers and say ‘Okay, what is the next thing we need to improve?’ For sure, everyone can keep getting stronger each year, but it may be that a thrower needs to change their approach in certain ways. We try to target areas where they have the most room to develop and focus on one main thing. This year with Jeff, we decided to work on rhythm and timing.”

The effort Mo and Jeff put in during the fall and winter seemed to pay dividends right away as Jeff opened his indoor campaign with a 19.39m PB. At his next comp, though, he fell back to 18.09m, an indication that more work was required before the changes they’d made would hold up in competition.

At that point, they agreed to “sacrifice the beginning and middle of the outdoor season” and go back to working meticulously on Jeff’s rhythm. 

Mo says they “had to keep the training volume higher than normal” as the outdoor season began, “and this kept his performances low. We looked at what parts of his throw were off, and the main factor was the timing of his delivery. Working on that required a high volume of throwing, so we knew Jeff would not be in his best competition shape early in the season. But, one thing I’ve learned over the years is that in a technique event like the shot put, which takes a long time to master, you have to be willing to spend a longer time in certain training phases. A lot of people think you have to change the training stimuli every three-to-four weeks or even every two weeks, but to achieve results that last you have to give the athlete a chance to adapt. Sometimes, that means spending ten or twelve weeks in a phase of training.”

As you can see from the numbers cited above, Jeff’s competition results were not outwardly promising during March and April. 

But, Mo says Jeff showed definite signs of improvement at the Pac 12 meet in May, and his training numbers indicated he was rounding into form as regionals approached.

“We keep records of training results,” he explained, “and one thing we look at is performance trends in training because they indicate what you can do in competition. It’s not necessarily a direct correlation because in a competition you have a lot more adrenaline, so you don’t have to throw seventy feet in practice to throw it in a meet. But Jeff’s training results were getting better, and going into regionals I thought he could do somewhere between 19.60m and 20 meters. The 19.80m gave him confidence that he could compete with the best guys, and that really helped him in Austin.”

Going forward, Mo believes that Jeff will continue to improve.

“He gets overlooked sometimes because he’s only six feet tall, and he’s not flexible, so he doesn’t necessarily hit beautiful positions. But he’s explosive and coordinated, and he works really hard on technical mastery. And now, he understands the value of rhythm.” 

Victories, large and small

Annette Echikunwoke at the 2023 USATF NYC Grand Prix. Photo courtesy of USATF.

Two years ago, Annette Echikunwoke was napping in her room at a training center in Kisarazu, Japan, when she was awakened by a knock at her door. The visitor turned out to be a coach from the Nigerian national team there to inform her that because the Nigerian Federation had failed to administer the required number of drug tests in the weeks leading up to the Olympic Games, Annette and several of her teammates were no longer eligible to compete in Tokyo. It was her twenty-fifth birthday. She had been scheduled to make her Olympic debut three days later. 

One year ago, as the 2022 USATF Championships approached, Annette once again found herself in a precarious situation. After the Olympic debacle, she’d applied with World Athletics to switch her allegiance back to the United States. A week before the USATF Champs, she had still not received a definitive answer. 

“I would come out of practice,” she said recently when asked to reflect on those days, “and cry in my car because I felt so overwhelmed by all the uncertainty.” 

The Sunday before the hammer comp, Annette sat in church praying with one of her religious mentors. “She reminded me that it is up to God to open some doors and shut other doors, and if competing at USAs was meant to happen, it would happen. That prayer touched me and helped me handle the stress of not knowing.”

That Wednesday, Annette woke up at her place in Cincinnati where she lives and trains and saw a message on her phone informing her that she was cleared to compete. The hammer comp was on Thursday. In Eugene.

Somehow, she arranged a flight, made it through processing, tossed an SB of 73.76m and earned a spot on the US squad for Worlds.

The challenges Annette has faced this summer, so far anyway, have been much less dramatic. 

Last weekend’s USATF NYC Grand Prix meeting for example, was scheduled at 9am, and Annette says “it rained all day on Friday, then into the competition on Saturday morning until ten minutes after we were finished. Then it stopped and the sun came out. But it was no problem. I’m used to throwing in the rain in Cincinnati.”

And she’d heard in the days before the meet that the ring at Icahn Stadium was “not the most even surface, so the rain probably balanced it out in our favor.”

Annette ended up being the only hammer thrower among the men and women who made it through six rounds without fouling, and she won with a series (69.70m, 68.36m, 69.15m, 68.72m, 70.69m, 71.11m) that showed remarkable consistency. 

But, as in most of her comps this year, Annette was frustrated by her inability to hit a big throw. 

Her season’s best remains the 75.00m she tossed at the USATF Throws Festival in May, and in June she knocked out her best throw ever in Europe–73.66m at the Irena Szewinska Memorial meeting in Poland. “But,” says Annette, “I’m stronger this year, so there is more to come out in terms of distance. My goal is still to distinguish myself as one of the world’s best hammer throwers.”

She might have taken an important step in that direction in New York. It was the first time this season that Annette’s longtime coach, Susan Seaton, was able to see her throw in person, and afterwards she told Annette that she knew “exactly what we have to do going forward.”

According to Annette, one key to unlocking some big throws might be to give herself more grace when struggling at practice.

She says a “tiny part of the reason I haven’t thrown as far as I could this season is because I’m so self-critical. In just about every throw, I’m very aware of what’s going on with my technique, and I’m always telling myself I’ve got to do better.”

To encourage Annette to be a little more patient with herself, Coach Seaton shared an interview Ryan Crouser gave after breaking his own World Record at the recent LA Grand Prix. In it, Ryan reflects on a difficult period he went through in 2018, and explains how he climbed out of a technical rut by focusing not on the many things he thought he was doing wrong but on one simple thing each session that he was doing right.

Annette says that since watching the video, she has done her best to “believe in practice and not be so self-critical in practice, and to encourage myself in practice rather than just trying to be positive in meets.”

Bottom line, “we have to remember to applaud ourselves when we do something right.”

Her next competition will be on July 9th at the 2023 USATF Championships when she will take on a stellar field that will include 2022 World champion Brooke Andersen, 2022 World bronze medalist Janee’ Kassanavoid, 2019 World champion DeAnna Price, former NCAA champ Maggie Ewen who set a new PB of 75.10m in May, and first-year pro Alyssa Wilson who has a PB of 74.78m. 

As defending champ, Brooke has a bye for Budapest so Annette’s job will be to finish ahead of at least one of the other contenders from the above group, although she reminded me that someone unexpected might make a run for the podium as well. 

“Anything can happen,” she cautioned. “There are the marks on paper, and then there is what is actually going to happen in the competition. Look at me last year. I don’t think a lot of people even knew I was trying to switch my allegiance, so when I showed up at USAs, people were probably like, ‘What the heck is happening?’”

However things turn out in Eugene, Annette will stay positive going forward.

“I know my future is bright” she says. “I’m here for a reason, and I’ll keep working hard until God says ‘Do something else!’”

Badgers have fun in the California sun

Whenever I’m at a museum that has a collection of Ancient Greek vases, I like to play a version of Where’s Waldo where I look for images of people chucking the jav or discus. It validates me and makes me feel less weird to see that the folks who invented philosophy and theater and gyros loved the sport of throwing as much as I do. 

One thing I’ve noticed about the athletes depicted on the vases, though, is that they are never wearing three layers of sweats or thick woolen gloves. Nor do they appear to be freezing their asses off. 

That’s not how it goes for modern throwers, at least not those living and training in the American Midwest where typical spring weather makes frostbite a real possibility.

Luckily, the US has its own version of the Mediterranean climate in a place called California. There, throwers can compete in comfort and snack on avocado toast as did Coach Dave Astrauskas’ group from the University of Wisconsin earlier this month.

The result? Fourteen PBs and two school records. Here’s some deets.

A pack of Badgers is called a “clan” or a “cete.”

Cal State LA Twilight Invitational  April 12

Chloe Lindeman  won the hammer at the LA Twilight Invitational with a PB toss of 64.52m. It was the beginning of a  successful week made possible, according to Coach Astrauskas, by a conversation he had with Chloe a few months ago that went something like this:

Astrauskas: Chloe, I think you should stop throwing the shot put. Weight and hammer are the way to go for you.

Chloe: Coach, what are you talking about? I’m a shot putter! 

Astrauskas: We all think we are a certain thing until we are not.

It’s hard to argue with logic like that, and Chloe’s performance since ditching the shot–a fourth-place finish in the weight at the NCAA Indoor Championships, a cavalcade of hammer PBs this spring–has been promising. 

Olivia Roberts, also coming off a successful winter with the weight (13th at NCAA Indoors), took second in the hammer here with a best of 57.30m. Olivia is a reformed jumpaholic who came to Madison as a potential multi then briefly tried the javelin before taking up the ball and wire full time in 2021.

Her introduction to the hammer involved several months of throwing light implements into a net. As fun as that sounds, Astrauskas was impressed with Roberts’ stick-to-it-iveness. 

“At times, she was like, ‘I don’t know if I’ll ever be good at this,’” Astruaskas recalls. “But she was always fun to work with, always asked good questions. And she showed up every day with a smile on her face ready to try something that was completely foreign to her–throwing into a tarp and lifting a lot of weights.”

Roberts threw 54.84m that first season, then improved to 60.61m in 2022. 

Coach A says that her performance in the weight (22.32m PB) shows that she has the “horsepower” to make the hammer go. After this year, she’ll have two indoor seasons and one outdoor season of eligibility remaining, and Astrauskas is excited to see how much more she can improve.

Sam Coil won the Twilight  men’s hammer comp with a 67.00m PB. Sam, a grad student who transferred from South Dakota State in 2021, came to Madison as a three-turn hammer thrower and struggled as he transitioned to four turns. After throwing 61.35m during the 2021 season, he topped out at 61.20m last year. 

Just before the California trip, however, Sam experienced what Coach Asttrauskas describes as a “lightbulb moment.”  

That conversation went something like this

Sam: Coach, I don’t need to try so hard on my throws. I can kind of let the ball pull me through my first three turns.

Astrauskas: Yep.

Sam’s practice attempts improved immediately, and a five-and-a-half meter PB at the Twilight followed.

Chloe Lindeman, Coach Astrauskas, and Josie Schaefer celebrating big throws with big smiles.

Pacific Coast Intercollegiate Invitational April 13

Lindeman threw 62.88m at the Pacific Coach Intercollegiate to pick up another win. This was the third consecutive comp where she surpassed her PB from last season (62.66m), and Coach Astrauskas says  bigger throws will come as Chloe stops relying so much on the “ballistic finish” that helped her launch the weight 23.77m this winter. 

Josie Schaefer, entering the final leg of a magnificent Badger career, tossed her best-ever outdoor season opener (18.18m) to win the women’s shot. Astrauskas says that besides scoring tons of points, Josie–second at the 2021 NCAA Outdoor Championships and again at the 2023 Indoor Champs–serves as the “master motivator and leader of the team.”

Josie herself is highly motivated to improve her discus PB (57.22m) during her final season, but she came up a little short here, finishing sixth with a throw of 55.04m. The conditions, according to Astruaskas, were favorable, and Schaefer hit solid positions during her throws, but the discus gods are fickle and a slight glitch in her release cost her some distance.

Jason Swarens put the shot 19.11m to take the win. Swarens (6’4”, 300lbs) is a big man with a big future, according to Astrauskas. “He threw 64’ with a glide as a junior in high school,” says Coach A. “So, he has some pop. He also has two more years of eligibility, and with his passion for the event, he can be one of the best we’ve ever had here.”

Another contender for best-ever Badger is Andrew Stone, who finished third in the men’s shot with a throw of 18.36m, well below the PB of 19.97m he produced in May of 2022. 

Andrew’s struggles this season can be traced back to a biceps tendon strain he suffered in his left arm indoors. Astrauskas says Stone was in a lot of pain at the Big Ten Indoor Championships, but with the Badgers in the hunt for the title, insisted on going for broke on his final attempt. Stone produced his best put of the day (18.63m) and picked up important team points by jumping from seventh to fourth place. 

“Putting that kind of effort out there might have set him back with the injury,” says Astrauskas. “But he told me recently that he felt like it was worth it to help the team. He is a tough son of a gun.” 

In spite of some lingering discomfort, Stone produced a 55.04m PB in the disc at the PCI, which moved him to number ten all time for the Badgers.

They say fish is brainfood, so look for this group to do well on their final exams.

Beach Invitational April 14 – April 15

Chloe Lindeman hammered a PB of 64.90m to take second at the Beach Invitational. Astrauskas described that throw as “the most fluid in her first three turns. There was no big gap between turns three and four, and she didn’t pause to load up before her delivery. We don’t want to take away her violent finish, but we don’t want that to be the sole focus.” 

Chloie was, he added, “pretty excited” after that throw, and understandably so. With it, she broke the school record.

There was more excitement for Astrauskas’ crew in the women’s hammer as Olivia Roberts climbed to number four on the all time list with a 61.44m toss that has the Badgers looking solid in that event.

There are no brats here, and we’re okay with that. Olivia Roberts and Chikere Oduocha enjoying Cali.

Sam Coil’s light bulb continued to burn bright at the Beach as he backed up his recent PB with another fine effort, this time 65.89m to finish tenth. After learning to stay more relaxed through his turns, Astrauskas says Sam now has to adapt as the implement moves faster.

“He had so much ball speed, it pulled him off the ground,” observed the coach. “When you make a change and it works, you then sometimes have to adjust to the fact that you are creating greater force. But that’s a good problem to have.”

Jason Swarens made a huge statement at the Beach with a 19.86m blast to take the win. Keep in mind, this young man’s outdoor SB in 2022 was 18.74m.  

“His technique is just starting to get better,” Astrauskas explained. “Covid wiped out his senior season in high school, then when he got to Madison I redshirted him, so he had two years of not competing. Now, he’s finally starting to see the results of all the hard work he put in.” 

Swarens is now number two all time at Wisconsin behind Stone, who was a DNS at the Beach in both the shot and disc as, unfortunately, his biceps issue resurfaced. 

“Andrew has one more outdoor and two indoor seasons after this,” says Astrauskas, “and I hope we can keep him healthy because he has the ability to do special things. Every year he’s been here, he’s had some kind of nagging injury, probably because of the way he’s built. He’s wound kind of tightly, which is fine for shot putting but he needs to learn to listen to his body more and to do the stuff outside of the ring that will make him more durable. If he can stay healthy, he has a great future.”

We can’t help it, palm trees make us happy! Abby Peeler and Danni Langseth hugging it out.

Mt. SAC Relays April 15

Chloe Lindeman launched another fine throw, 64.67m, to finish ninth in the Elite Invitational division at Mt. SAC. Her performance came in spite of some miscommunication that had her and Astrauskas thinking she would be throwing early in the day in the Collegiate division. 

“At first,” according to Astrauskas, “she was put in the Collegiate competition, then she got moved to the Elite section. Then, they moved her back to Collegiate, so we showed up at 9 a.m. on Saturday but found out she was moved again, and wouldn’t throw until 2 p.m.”

Lindeman remained untroubled by the fuss, and her consistency in the 64-meter range has Astrauskas excited about her future. As with Stone and Swarens, she’ll have one outdoor and two indoor seasons remaining after this year.

Josie Schaefer finished tenth in the Mt SAC Elite Women’s Disc, launching an SB of 56.70m in what Astrauskas describes as a “nice wind.” She fell short of her season’s goal of 200 feet (60.96m), but was likely tired after smashing the school record in the shot put that morning.

Josie’s shot PB had been stuck at 18.29m since the 2021 NCAA Outdoor Championships, but on this day Astrauskas could tell right away that something was brewing. 

“The first time she got in the ring during warmups,” he says, “the ball was going. I don’t think she was under 18 meters on any throw.”

 Once the comp began, she went 18.12m, 18.98m, 18.54m. 

Never wanting to pass up an opportunity to ice a thrower on the best day of their career, the officials took their time reordering the flight before the final three rounds, and once things finally got rolling again Schaeffer was understandably low on gas. Adding 69 centimeters to your PB can be quite a jolt to the system. Her final throws went 17.74m, foul, 17.11m.

What caused the breakthrough? 

Astruaskas attributes it to the work they’ve put in smoothing out Josie’s entry. “Our focus has been on out of the back, ” he explained. “Making sure to make a good job of coming around the left, staying out over the left, and keeping the right shoulder down. Today, she did that very well.”

The 18.98m throw vaulted Schaefer to fifth on the World Athletics performance list for 2023, and has inquiring minds wondering if she’ll turn pro after this season.

“Josie,” says Astrauskas,” is not one to hang on without good reason. She has certain distances in her mind, and if she hits them she’ll probably continue throwing. Otherwise she’ll call it a career.”

Whatever that number is, shot put fans can only hope she achieves it. Yes, the United States is currently flush with top female putters, but there’s room for a competitor who is, according to Astrauskas, “Fierce, focused and always ready to go at the big meets.”  

The next “big meet” for Josie and the Badgers will be this weekend’s Penn Relays where temperatures will be in the low ’60’s with lots of rain and no palm trees. Just like home.

Chloe Lindeman, Coach Astrauskas, and Olivia Roberts showing no signs of sun stroke.

Bears Golden at Mt. SAC

Looks like Mo Saatara’s Cal Berkeley throws squad–aka Mo’s Maulers, aka the Berkeley Bangers, aka…sorry, I’ll stop–is the real deal. After showing up huge at the Brutus Hamilton Invite on April 8th,  Mo’s group–the Cal Crushers?–performed prodigiously once again at last weekend’s Mt. SAC relays. Could this be a developing trend? Let’s examine.

Men’s Hammer–Collegiate Division

Kegan Schroeter won the Men's Hammer--College Division at Mt. SAC. Photo credit: Ron Sellers
Kegan Schroeter won the Collegiate Men’s Hammer at Mt. SAC. (Photo Credit: Ron Sellers)

Kegan Schroeter broke the 70-meter barrier for the first time to take the win. His series (66.71m, 69.20m, 69.03m, 70.21m, foul, foul) showed that Coach Saatara’s emphasis on developing consistent technique is paying off. 

Mo is not an advocate of the haul ass and hope for the best style of throwing. “It all comes down to stability,” he explained. “If you are steady and consistent, then one of your throws is eventually going to go.”

It’s a good sign when your old PB (in Kegan’s case 69.33m) becomes a routine throw. It’s also a good sign when you break a school record that has stood for thirty-seven years.

Keegan is going to have to work to keep his spot on top of the board though, as Mo’s hammer group includes another potential 70-meter man in  Ivar Moisander (69.05m PB), who finished fourth at Mt. SAC with a toss of 66.33m. 

Ivar Moisander took 4th in the Men’s Collegiate Hammer at Mt. SAC (Photo credit: Al Sermeno/KLC fotos)

Mo says that Ivar showed solid technique at Mt. SAC, but lacked some of his usual explosiveness due to a recent illness. He predicts though, that Ivar will be ready for the championship season (PAC-12s, regionals, NCAAs). According to Mo, Ivar “loves the big meets” and is a solid bet to hit 70 meters when it counts the most.

Michael Gupta is part of a solid men’s hammer trio at Cal. (Photo Credit: Catharyn Hayne)

A third Golden Bear hammer thrower, Michael Gupta (63.69m PB) also competed at Mt. SAC, finishing fifteenth. Mo credits Michael with contributing to the healthy chemistry that exists among the hammer folk at Cal. A computer science major, Michael “sets a great example of how to balance academics and athletics” and possesses a “deep understanding” of the event. Anyone looking for a solid theoretical conversation about hammer technique should, according to Mo, give Michael a call. 

Tempting!

Men’s Discus–Elite Invitational

Young Mykolas Alekna, is on track to become one of the best ever in his event. Mykolas, the 2022 World silver medalist and European champion, shook the Brutus with a 68.39m bomb, and then followed that up with a 68.35m toss at Mt. SAC to take the win.. 

Wunderkind alert! Mykolas Alekna won the Elite Men’s Discus at Mt. SAC. (Photo Credit: Shawn David Price)

The lanky Lithuanian looked solid in warmups but, according to Mo, began pressing a bit once the comp began. Hitting the cage on his “best technical throw” did not help matters, and Mykolas was never quite able to find his rhythm.

Lord knows what will happen once he does, but one NCAA opponent who will try to provide some competition is Arkansas’s Rojé Stona, a transfer from Clemson who broke the Razorback school record at Mt. SAC with a toss of 66.64m. 

Great Britain’s Lawrence Okoye finished third here, as he did the last time he faced Alekna–at the 2022 European Championships. 

Okoye–large, strong, explosive, large–is legendary for his physical gifts and inconsistency. During warmups, Mo told his kids to keep an eye on the bulging Brit as he is always capable of hitting a big throw. His series–foul, 66.15m, foul, 62.58m, foul, 59.00m–was a typical all-or-nothing outing for Okoye. Alekna, by way of comparison, backed up his 68.35m with three additional throws over 65 meters, and all of Stona’s five measured throws were between 64.41m and 66.64m.

Iffy Joyner finished 7th in the Elite Men’s Discus as Mt. SAC. (Photo credit: Catharyn Hayne /KLC Fotos )

Cal’s Iffy Joyner finished seventh with a best of 59.23m. As described in an earlier piece on the Brutus, Iffy has been plagued by a knuckle injury on his throwing hand, but Mo believes they have finally found a way to tape and pad the swollen joint that will allow him to throw normally. During the week leading up to Mt. SAC, Iffy was able to resume training with heavy discs (2.5-3.0 kilos), which was an integral part of his routine in the past. Mo says that Iffy “feels like he is getting back to where he needs to be,” which is perfect timing with PAC-12s less than a month away.

Women’s Hammer–Elite Invitational

Cal grad Camryn Rogers, now representing Canada as one of “Mo’s pros,” began her professional career at the Brutus by launching 77.30m to take the world lead. She extended that mark at Mt. SAC with a 77.84m opener.

Camryn Rogers showing there is more to Canadians than maple syrup and politeness. ((Photo Credit: Ron Sellers)

Mo appreciated the bomb, but was even happier with Rogers’ series (77.84m, 75.61m, 76.79m, 76.03m, 75.37m, 77.14m), which displayed the level of consistency he deems critical to anyone wanting to climb the podium at an international championships.

“If you look at the great champions,” he says, “they had stable technique that they could repeat. That allowed them to produce big throws multiple times in a competition. And with the level  they are at right now in the women’s hammer, you’ll very likely need to throw  79.00-80.00m to contend for a medal.”

Speaking of major championships, Camryn approached Mt. SAC as if it were the final at a Worlds or Olympics. 

After performing a general warmup away from the track, she sat down and chilled for an hour as athletes are forced to do when confined to a call room at the big comps. She then took only two warmup throws in the cage prior to her flight.

Mo says that the “environment at a championships is very different than at a normal comp. You have the call room and very limited warmups in the ring, and athletes need practice in dealing with that. If you get used to taking a bunch of warmup throws at all your other competitions, it can be a shock when you only get two at Worlds. You have to use each competition to develop the skills you’ll need to throw well at the big ones.”

Anna Purchase made a huge breakthrough at the Brutus, launching a 73.02m missile to take the NCAA lead by nearly three meters. You can probably guess Mo’s advice going into Mt. SAC. 

Anna Purchase sits atop the NCAA leader board in the women’s hammer. (Photo Credit: Don Gosney)

“Let’s pepper the 70-meter line this week,” he told her. “Keep building stability. There will be more peak throws coming if you can keep raising the level of your average throws.”

Mission accomplished. Anna took second at Mt. SAC with a series–69.25m, foul, 69.97m, foul, 69.29m, foul–which represented an improvement over her marks at the Brutus–66.57m, 73.02m, 68.15m, 68.80m, pass, pass–with the exception of the big blast. 

Mo and Anna will work to elevate her “average” even more with the hope that she can unleash another corker at the NCAA Championships in June.

Men’s Shot–Elite Invitational

Cal’s Jeff Duensing (19.39m PB, 18.91m SB) came to Mt. SAC looking to get some experience at a high-caliber meet. He threw 18.06m and finished twelfth, but Mo believes the trip was fully worthwhile. “This was his first big invite,” he explained. “Jeff has only done college meets before this, and he needed to get a taste of how you have to step up if you want to compete against the best.”

Jeff Duensing placed 12th in the Elite Men’s Shot Put at Mt. SAC. (Photo Credit: Al Sermeno)

The “best” in the men’s shot turned out to be Arizona’s Jordan Geist, who seems to be following the advice I would give to all college students–Don’t leave! 

Geist was the 2018 Pac-12 Freshman of the Year, has scored several jillion points for his Wildcats during the intervening years, and hopes to end his NCAA career with an outdoor shot put (and possibly hammer) title to match the indoor crown he won this March.

He grabbed the top spot here with an NCAA-leading toss of 21.25m, and Mo says Geist is in excellent form.

 “Jordan,” he surmised, “is learning to manage his speed across the circle. Camryn had to go through the same process in the hammer. She can turn really fast, but at one point I said to her ‘That’s nice, but nobody cares how fast you can move. They care how far the hammer goes.’ Jordan creates a tremendous amount of rotational power, and sometimes maybe he struggled to use it properly, but he’s figuring that out, which will make him very hard to beat.”

Women’s Discus–Elite Invitational

Cal volunteer assistant coach Elena Bruckner broke the 60-meter barrier for the first time at the Brutus, then surpassed it twice more at Mt. SAC, producing a series–57.29m, 60.79m, 57.24m, 61.51m, 59.87m, foul–that suggests bigger throws might be coming soon.

Elena Bruckner,, Camryn Rogers and Anna Purchase showing off their Mt. SAC hardware. (Photo courtesy of Elena Bruckner)

This is Bruckner’s second year as one of Mo’s pros, and the 60.26m she threw at the Brutus was her first discus PB since 2019. 

That’s a long time to persevere, and Mo gives Elena credit for enduring a painstaking technique renovation last year when she first began training in Berkeley. 

Mo says that even with an accomplished thrower, a coach must always start with the basics. “You don’t want to get complicated or get weird right away. If you try to change too much at once, none of it will happen. The first stage is to develop balance. The next stage is learning to carry the disc through the ring without losing your connection to it.”

Once they made progress on those fronts, Bruckner also needed to shore up her mechanics during the release phase. 

“She was,” Mo recalls, “just pivoting her knee into the throw, which doesn’t create force. You need to anchor your block and then move the hip (in Bruckner’s case her left hip–she’s a southpaw) around it. Then you generate force.”

 The methodical approach was not easy for Bruckner, who came out of high school in 2016 with a 55.67m PB and some big expectations. 

“She had a lot of pressure when she was younger,” Mo explained. “And that is not necessarily a good thing. If a kid is talented, they don’t need people hitting them on the head with it. They need guidance, someone to say, ‘If you want to accomplish these things, here is how you do it.’”

Bruckner improved to 57.40m during her time at the University of Texas, and after exhausting her NCAA eligibility sought a fresh start in Berkeley.

She showed a lot of moxie as she and Mo went through the often tedious process of drilling fundamentals in 2022. “It was not easy,” recalls Mo. “There was a lot of trial and error, a lot of work, and a lot of not knowing if we were on the correct path until we got it right.”

Bruckner’s best mark in 2022 was 55.79m, but she found a nice rhythm during fall practices and has been able to build on that this spring.

Her 61.51m at Mt. SAC was good enough for third behind two highly accomplished throwers, Oregon’s Jorinde Van Klinken and former Iowa Hawkeye Laulauga Tausaga-Collins

Those two will likely be competing at the Worlds in Belgrade this summer, and if Bruckner continues to climb, she just might join them.

In the meantime, don’t sleep on Mo’s Monsters! The Clubbers of Cal? The Berkeley Bashers? I’ll work on it.

A Super Day for Cal Throwers

I’m old enough to remember a time when really smart kids spent their weekends building robots or arguing about which is the coolest prime number. These days, they seem focused on establishing total dominance over the world of NCAA throwing. Last week, I detailed the exploits of Harvard’s huckers at the Florida Relays. Now, we turn our attentions to the brawny brainiacs of Cal Berkeley who dominated the recent Brutus Hamilton Invite held at their home stadium.

Men’s Hammer

Kegan Schroeter takes the win at the 2023 Brutus Hamilton Invite. Photo credit: Catharyn Hayne

Cal throws coach Mo Saatara described the Brutus Hamilton as “kind of a test meet,” and hammer thrower Kegan Schroeter set the curve early with a 67.86m toss for the win. Schroeter, a transfer from Brown whom Coach Saatara describes as a “big talent and a great guy,” came close to his 69.33m PB in spite of the fact that the hammer guys were still in “heavy training” in the weeks leading up to the meet.

Cal’s other 69-meter hammer dude, Ivar Moisander, sat this one out due to a bout with the flu. 

 Max McKhann of Stanford, took second behind Schroeter with a toss of 65.39m.

Women’s Hammer

Camryn Rogers, who won three NCAA titles for Cal, began her pro career at the Brutus with a world-leading throw of 77.30m. 

2022 World Championships silver medalist Camryn Rogers in her professional debut. Photo credit: Catharyn Hayne

After an incredibly successful 2022 season–NCAA title, NCAA record, World Championships silver–Camryn and Mo sat down to figure out what they could do to make 2023 even better. “We decided,” Mo says, “that she needed to make her technique more stable so she could easily replicate it. She also needed to start performing better in early rounds to take some of the pressure off during qualification at the major championships like Worlds.”  

Camryn’s series–77.00m, 76.04m, 77.30m, Pass, Pass, Pass–suggests that they are already making progress.

The three passes look odd on the stat sheet, but Mo explained that they were part of the plan going in. “We wanted to treat this like a qualification round, where you know you only have three throws to hit the standard or at least put yourself in the top twelve. Qualification rounds have caused her a lot of stress in the past, so If we can make her more confident in her ability to produce big throws early, it will be easier for her to feel comfortable going into a final.”

And as Mo sees it, Camryn will need all the comfort she can muster at the Worlds this summer in Belgrade, which he predicts will be “amazingly competitive,” in part because  Anita Wlodarczyk (3x Olympic, 4x European, and 4x World champ) and DeAnna Price (2019 World champ, second to Anita on the all time list) should be healthy after suffering derailment-by-injury last season.

The field will also include 2022 World Championship gold medalist  Brooke Andersen, who will receive a bye into the 2023 Worlds, and likely Janee’ Kassanavoid, the 2022 bronze medalist, provided she makes it through what promises to be an extremely competitive USA Trials in July.

With a lineup like that, Mo says he would not be surprised to see “multiple” throws over 80 meters in Belgrade.     

Cal’s Anna Purchase took second on Saturday with a huge 73.02m PB that might set her up to join Rogers in Belgrade. Purchase represents Great Britain internationally, and is already close to the 73.60m automatic qualifying mark for Worlds.

Anna Purchase takes the NCAA lead. Photo credit: Catharyn Hayne

Mo attributes Anna’s breakthrough to the hard work they’ve put in strengthening and standardizing her throwing form the past two years. “It’s critical to be stable in your technique,” he explained. “Then you can go into a big competition and just throw as you normally do and not try to make a superhuman effort.” 

Purchase’s series–66.57m, 73.02m, 68.15m, 68.80m, Pass, Pass–showed that she still has work to do regarding her consistency, but a PB of nearly two-and-a-half meters is an encouraging sign. 

Mo intended to limit Anna to three throws as he did with Rogers, but promised her she could take a fourth attempt if she “did great” early on. 

“I actually thought her fourth throw was her best technically,” he says. “But she was completely gassed from jumping around and celebrating the 73.02m.”

And who could blame her? That toss put her atop the NCAA leaderboard for 2023 and moved her to fifth place all-time in her event.

Men’s Shot

Jake Porter winning the shot. Photo credit: Catharyn Hayne

Cal’s Jake Porter rolled his ankle earlier this spring, but relied on what Mo describes as his “blue collar” work ethic to get back into fighting trim. His best of 17.64m got him first at the Brutus over the “two Niks,” or possibly the “two Nicks.” That would be Nik Iwankiw, and Nick Godbehere, two talented redshirt freshmen for whom Mo has high hopes. 

His best putter, Jeff Duensing (19.39m PB) did not compete due to a case of food poisoning he picked up the previous weekend after finishing seventh at the Texas Relays.

Men’s Discus

However lousy Duensing felt after dining at the Austin Airport, the top men’s discus throwers in the world had to feel worse upon hearing that Mykolas Alekna opened his season with 68.39m– the second best throw in NCAA history. 

2022 European Champion and World Championships silver medalist Mykolas Alekna picking up right where he left off. Photo credit: Catharyn Hayne

Alekna, the World silver medalist and European Champion, started with a foul and told Mo that throwing in the ring where he practices every day made him forget for a minute that he was supposed to save these throws. His series also included a 67.89m effort and two more fouls, one of which landed beyond 70 meters. 

What’s the deal with this kid? 

Mykolas is, according to Mo, very engaged in the process. “People don’t realize how much of his technique is his technique,” he explained. “Mykolas is the driver there. He understands what he is trying to do and why. People think that because the dad (two-time World and Olympic champ Virgilijus Alekna) threw far, of course the son throws far, but if you want to be as good as Mykolas has been, you have to be committed, and he is.”

When the two sat down to decide how they might build on last season, one thing they decided to focus on was improving Mykolas’s finish–specifically, the double support phase of his delivery. 

Mo acknowledges that one of Mykolas’s strengths is the way he “catches the disc very early,” but believes they can find “more meters” if Mykolas can accelerate the disc better through the finish rather than just “slapping at it.”

In terms of physical qualities, Mo describes Mykolas as “extremely flexible” with a power output that is “crazy.” 

“I would compare him to Koji Murofushi. He is just very explosive, very good at throwing things. Because of his dad, people think Mykolas must be 6’9” or something, but he is more like 6’5”. He has long levers, but all the top discus throwers have long levers. What makes Mykolas special is that he feels and understands the movement very well, and can move things explosively.”   

When Mykolas asked Mo to recommend someone he might benefit from watching on video, Mo suggested Ryan Crouser, “because he is always under control, always balanced, always disciplined, never jumping out the front to throw far.” 

With another World Championships coming up in August, one challenge for Mo, Mykolas, and Mykolas’s Lithuanian coach Mantas Jusis, is to keep him healthy through both the collegiate and international seasons.  

Mo says that with an athlete as explosive as Mykolas, a coach has to be careful not to get “too crazy” during training. “You can’t go to the well too much,” he explained. “It’s better to be more conservative with volume and load so the athlete can keep training and getting better instead of missing time with an injury. Discus throwing is a highly skilled task, and the more time you can spend on it the better you’ll be.”

Iffy Joyner (62.17m PB) can attest to the truth of that statement. Since last season, Iffy has been struggling with arthritis in the middle finger of his throwing hand, which hurts, according to Mo, “in just the wrong spot.” 

Iffy finished seventh at the Texas Relays with a toss of 58.48m, and took second at the Brutus with 58.69m. The finger has forced him to give up shot putting, but Mo is optimistic that it won’t be too much of a detriment in the disc. They have a doctor’s note which allows Iffy to pad and tape the knuckle during competitions, and things are going well enough that Mo has encouraged Iffy to continue competing when his eligibility expires this spring. 

Women’s Discus

That is exactly what Elena Bruckner, currently a volunteer assistant at Cal, did when she graduated from Texas two years ago. Elena was not ready to give up throwing, so she moved back to her native California and began training at Cal. This weekend, she surpassed the coveted sixty-meter barrier, tossing 60.26m to take the win. 

Mo actually recruited Elena out of high school, and describes her talent level as “insane.” 

She is also, in Mo’s words, a “genuinely nice” person whose superpower is her rare combination of elasticity and explosiveness. 

Mine is knowing when to end a post. More to come after the busy weekend ahead!

Big throws at the 2023 Texas Relays!

As another weekend of NCAA competition heats up, here’s a quick look back at last week’s Texas Relays.

Hammer time

Pat Ebel’s Auburn throws squad had a great weekend.

Maddie Malone got the Tigers rolling on Thursday with a win in the women’s hammer. Her best of 68.45m topped Canadian Kaila Butler of the Kamloops Track and Field Club, whose top effort of 67.75m came on her final attempt.

Ebel says that Maddie’s training is going “really well. She competed in the weight at indoor nationals in early March, so we held her out of a couple of outdoor meets earlier this season just so she could get her rhythm back in the hammer. But she’s starting to find her feel.”

Malone opened her outdoor campaign with a toss of 68.79m at the FSU Relays on March 23. She set her PB of 69.66m in April of 2022, a mark that Ebel believes she will soon surpass. “We have been training hard in the weight room,” he explained. ”And we are also working on a couple of technical points, but I can see her going seventy meters soon.”

The women’s hammer comp was contested in a steady rain, which Ebel says did not hinder Maddie’s performance. “She’s thrown in that weather before. And I always tell my throwers, that as long as you are technically sound coming out of the back on your entry, rain shouldn’t bother you at all.”

Maddie’s 68.79m has her ranked second in the NCAA at this point, and when she returns to Austin for the NCAA Championships in June, she will try to improve on her eighth-place finish from 2022 

That will be it for her college eligibility, but she plans to stick around Auburn to train with Ebel while pursuing a pro career, a bold choice considering the current American dominance in the event.  Brooke Andersen and Janee’ Kassanavoid are currently ranked first and second in the world, with Annette Echikunwoke eleventh and Alyssa Wilson twentieth–and that list does not include Maggie Ewen (75.04m PB), who has focused on the shot put of late but plans to contest the hammer seriously again starting this season. And don’t forget about DeAnna Price, the 2019 World Champion who demonstrated she is once again in top form by breaking the World Record in the weight in February.

But Ebel looks forward to the challenge. “I’ve got a couple of post-collegiate javelin throwers training here as well,” he explained. “So it will be a nice environment for Maggie. And she’s got a lot left in the tank!”

The men’s hammer comp in Austin was won by Ethan Katzburg, teammate of Kaila Butler on the Kamloops squad. Ethan broke the meet record with a 77.12m bomb, and according to UCLA throws coach Sean Denard, “hasn’t even touched his potential.” Interestingly, Katzburg and the other Canadian hammer throwers are coached by Dylan Armstrong, a World and Olympic medalist in the shot who Denard says was a fine hammer thrower himself in his youth.

Ebel was proud of the performance turned in by his son, Erik, who wound up eleventh in a field loaded with post-collegiates. Besides Katzburg, the men’s hammer comp featured Diego Del Real, the fourth-place finisher at the 2016 Olympics, Erich Sullins (72.10m PB), Jose Padilla (73.36m PB), and Kieran McKeag (71.50m PB).

Erik’s teammates  Kyle Brown and Kyle Moison finished twelfth and fifteenth respectively,  and the elder Ebel believes all of his guys can get over seventy meters this year, in part because of the way they “push each other in practice.”

What is it like for Pat Ebel to coach his son?  

“It’s fun! We get to travel together, and he keeps me on my toes. When he was throwing in high school, I’d usually see him in only one or two meets a month, so we’re making up for some lost time now.”

Soak it all in

A compelling reason to make the trip to meets like the Texas Relays is that it gives college throwers a chance to be around some of the world’s best. The women’s disc, for example, featured Olympic champion Valarie Allman, who won with a meet record of 67.90m.

Ebel’s thrower Maura Huwalt threw 54.24m, which did not get her into the top nine, but Ebel encouraged her to stick around for the entire comp to observe Val. “I told Maura to just sit and watch and notice Val’s habits, her ability to focus and refocus. Learn from her, then use it when it’s your turn.”

Ebel believes Maura’s turn will come soon enough. 

She is nearly six feet tall, with “long arms” and a serious competitive streak. “Maura has taken full advantage of her time here at Auburn,” he says. “She’s one of those athletes where I have to tell her, “That’s enough for today. It’s time to go home!’”

Though there were no Olympic champions in the men’s discus, the field was fierce. ASU’s Turner Washington, the 2021 NCAA shot and disc champ won with a best of 64.01m. Behind him were BYU’s Dallin Shurts (second in the 2022 USATF Championships), LSU’s Claudio Romero (last year’s NCAA champ), Northwestern State’s Djimon Gumbs (who threw a PB of 61.21m in Austin), then Sam Welsh of Rice (a 63.26m thrower last year for Harvard), and Coach Denard’s guy Aidan Elbettar, who threw a meter-and-a-half PB of 59.91m to take fifth.

That was a big breakthrough for Aidan, who had struggled in the past against top competition. “Last year,” says Denard, “he caged all three of his attempts throwing against Mykolas Alekna at the conference meet and again at the regionals, so for him to throw well against Turner and Claudio and Dallin is a big deal.”

The difference this time?  “He was attacking. Aidan only had one fair throw, but it wasn’t because he was throwing scared. His fouls were good fouls. He was being aggressive.”

The conditions in Austin were championship level as well, according to Denard. “They can move the discus cage,” he explained, “so they were able to face it into an eight-to-twelve mile an hour wind. Plus it was 85 degrees, and there were lots of people there, so the energy level in the stadium was high.”

While in Austin, Denard’s athletes also got the chance to practice a bit with shot put world record holder Ryan Crouser, who was in town to serve as Honorary Referee. That session, Aidan’s breakthrough, and the presence of a chicken-shaped disco ball at a local restaurant made for a memorable weekend.

An auspicious start

The performance of the weekend came in the men’s jav when Auburn freshman Keyshawn Strachan went 84.27m on the second throw of his college career. It was a PB, a school record, a world lead, and the fourth best throw in NCAA history.

“That,” in the words of Pat Ebel, “was unexpected. Based on his training numbers and his practice PR of around 79.80m, I was hoping to see him open around 78-80 meters. Then he fouled his first attempt, which went about 82 meters, so I told him to move his runup back around half a jav length, and…”

Denard was not surprised. “I’ve seen Keyshawn throw before,” he said, “and he’s incredibly talented. To me, he’s the Michael Jordan of javelin throwing. When he hits the point, it goes.”

Ebel says that Keyshawn is “capable of throwing over 80 meters any time he steps on the runway,” and that he benefited from the atmosphere in Austin. “He was excited to throw in front of this crowd and to compete against guys like Curtis Thompson (87.70m PB). And, his mom, grandmother, and coach from the Bahamas all made it in to see him throw, so it was a special moment.”

The next step for Strachan?  Consistency. 

“His throw after the 84.27m went about 74 meters,” according to Ebel. “He blew through every position and fouled it by about ten feet. So our goal will be to get him regularly in the 80-meter range.”

Keyshawn’s bomb overshadowed a great performance by Chinecherem Nnamdi of Baylor, the bronze medalist at the 2021 World U20 Championships, and a nice 79.29m opener for Thompson. With two more collegiate throwers–LSU’s Tzuriel Pedigo and BYU’s Cameron Bates–over the 75-meter mark, and Virginia’s  Ethan Dabbs (the 2022 USATF champion) just under it, expect some fireworks this June when these fellows tee it up again on the same runway.

Like Coach Denard, I’m a lifelong Chicago Bulls fan, so I know who I’m picking.

The Force Awakens: Harvard Throwers Shine at the 2023 Florida Relays

Don’t underestimate the Force

A long time ago…last weekend, actually…in a galaxy far, far away…well, Florida…Coach Darcy Wilson’s intrepid group of Harvard throwers sent a tremor through the NCAA track and field world. By the time the 2023 Pepsi Florida Relays ended, it was clear that a New Order, one in which STEM majors throw far, had emerged.

Hammer specialist Stephanie Ratcliffe (neuroscience) started it all off on Friday morning with a round-three PB of 70.15m to take the win in her event. That toss–currently the leading mark in the NCAA– was her first beyond 70-meters and a massive improvement over her 2022 marks.  Coach Wilson says they “knew she would be chasing those types of numbers this year based on her practice throws. And she hit 66-meters at home in Australia in January, so she’s been climbing.”

Ratcliffe’s teammates Cammy Garabian (math) and Cara Salsbury (undeclared) finished eighth and eleventh respectively.  

Estel Valeanu (engineering) then took sixth in a discus comp won by Vandy’s Veronica Fraley. Wilson expects big things from Valeanu this season. Her 54.74m toss in Gainesville was not far off her PB of 56.07m, which is encouraging since she just finished her senior thesis–a strenuous undertaking that consumed much of her energy this spring. “Big things are on the horizon for her,” according to Wilson.  

Not to be outdone by Ratcliffe, hammer thrower Kenneth Ikeji (undeclared) breached the 70-meter barrier for the first time as well (72.48m) while finishing second to Miami’s Decio Andrade. Wilson admits to casting aspersions after Kenneth’s fourth-round toss of 69.99m, telling him, “You can’t let Stephanie get to 70 and you not!” That well-intentioned taunting, along with the many hours Kenneth spent this past year learning to be “patient on his entry” produced a nice PB which has him sitting fifth on this year’s NCAA list

Saturday was shot put day in Gainesville, and Sarah Omoregie (applied mathematics) proved that it does indeed only take one. Her series:  foul, 15.49m, 17.21m, foul, 15.64m, 16.10m. According to Wilson, Omoregie–a glider and former heptathlete–is “extremely athletic and wired with fast twitch muscles,” but has to “be patient in the middle and delay the shot” in order to make her best throws. She did that once on Saturday, and the result was a PB, with, Wilson says, more to come for “one of the best athletes I’ve ever trained.” That 17.21m captured second place for Omoregie behind freshman sensation Alida Van Daalen of Florida who reached 17.94m.

Alexander Kolesnikoff (economics) closed out the  weekend for the Harvard heavers by blasting a PB 20.05m on his sixth and final attempt to win the men’s shot, an achievement that “stunned him,” according to Wilson.  “He has been dreaming about this twenty-meter day for years, and the way it played out is exactly what we’ve been working on–open well and then continue to build.”  His series: 19.66m, 19.11m, 19.64m, 19.79m, foul, 20.05m.

Wilson loved the way her guy responded after South Carolina’s Dylan Taggart hit 19.80m in round six to knock Kolesnikoff temporarily out of the top spot. “He’s been working on how to compete,” she explained. “Alexander has been in some international comps, but not a lot of high-level NCAA meets, so this was a great experience for him. After Dylan hit that throw, I looked at Alexander and said, ‘Here is your opportunity. Use this!’” 

Wilson predicts that Kolesnikoff will have plenty more clashes against world class competitors. “Alexander is only the third Ivy Leaguer in history to throw over twenty meters,” she noted. “The other two are Augie Wolf and Stephen Mozia, who both made the Olympics. I can for sure picture Alex following in those footsteps.”

What makes Kolesnikoff such a good putter? “He is,” according to Wilson, “a huge human being and an extremely hard worker.” 

From left to right: Coach Darcy Wilson, Estel Valeanu, Cara Salsberry, Kenneth Ikeji, Alexander Kolesnikoff, Stephanie Ratcliffe, Sarah Omoregie, Cammy Garabian. Photo courtesy of Coach Wilson

Smaller in number are we, but larger in mind

According to the College Board website, Harvard accepts only four percent of applicants. Those who gain admittance tend to have an ACT score in the 34-36 range, and a GPA of at least 3.75 on a 4-point scale. 

That’s a small slice of the population from which to recruit folks with elite athletic potential. I asked Wilson how she does it.

“My pitch is that we are the best school in the country, so you can be number one academically and we can also take you as far as you want to go athletically. You don’t have to compromise in either area.”

One helpful factor is Harvard’s financial aid policy, which is the same for American  and international students. Harvard evaluates a family’s financial situation and meets one hundred percent of their “demonstrated financial need.” 

This makes Harvard more affordable and attracts younglings from across the globe who are blessed with brains that twitch as fast as their muscles. Kolesnikoff and Ratcliffe, for example, are Australian. Valeanu is from Israel.

Wilson says she “works a lot of American and international connections.” She had her eye on Ikeji, for example, and followed him via social media as he developed into Great Britain’s best young hammer thrower. “I loved his potential,” she recalls. “He was a city kid who had to get on a bus for an hour to go practice, so I knew he was committed to the sport. He also happens to be a brilliant human being.”

Once on campus, Harvard athletes face the daunting task of competing at a high level without cutting corners in the classroom. “The Ivy League has a stricter policy on travel and missed classes,” Wilson says. “So it takes a lot of planning and deciding which meets each athlete should attend. Luckily, the whole school is very supportive of these kids.”

Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose

Among the group Wilson took to the Florida Relays, several will be competing for other schools next season. Valeanu will be an LSU Tiger in 2024, Kolesnikoff a Georgia Bulldog. Ratcliffe, Garabian, and Omoregie are currently in the transfer portal looking for the right fit.

This exodus is the result of a strange combination of circumstances. The Ivy League does not allow grad students to compete in athletics, and the five athletes mentioned above will all be grad students next year. The reason they still have athletic eligibility is because the NCAA gave everyone an extra year after the 2020 season was shut down. In fact, Kolesnikoff, Omoregie, and Valeanu have two years of eligibility remaining because the Ivy League did not allow athletes to compete in 2021 either. Ratcliffe actually has three years because she took a leave from the Harvard team and competed in Australia during 2022. 

Saying goodbye to this crew will not be easy for Wilson, but she has done her best to help Kolesnikoff and the others find their ideal landing spot. In the meantime, she looks forward to what promises to be an epic season for Harvard throws.

More from the Weltklasse Zurich

Kara WINGER of the United States competes in the womens Javelin Throw during the Iaaf Diamond League meeting (Weltklasse Zuerich) at the Letzigrund Stadium in Zurich, Thursday, September 8, 2022. (Weltklasse Zuerich/Urs Jaudas)

Domestic Bliss, Weaponized

In the documentary film The Last Waltz, Robbie Robertson, lead singer of the band “The Band,” describes touring as, “a goddamned impossible way of life.” The constant travel. The weird hours. The unfamiliar food. The ache of loneliness that wells up when the arena goes silent.

Professional track athletes know that scene. To make a living in the sport, they have to ply the European circuit for much of the summer while also managing trips to far-flung locales like Doha and Rabat.

And while traveling for a living might sound glamorous to those of us who make the same commute to the same office every day, think of this: When it goes badly at work, we still get to go home at the end of the day and sit on the couch with our spouse and share a glass of wine and watch a few episodes of “Friends” or “Shark Tank” and feel their warmth next to us all night before we have to get up and face the world again. But that’s not the way it works on the road. Not usually.

Russ Winger, formerly a world class shot and discus thrower and currently the coach and husband of Kara Winger, says that “when things are not going well in Europe, it’s the worst. You’re away from home, not competing well, not getting anything good out of the sport. That makes a lot of athletes decide they don’t want to continue.”

Kara experienced those feelings during the summer of 2021, when she struggled to find her rhythm while competing overseas. Looking ahead to 2022, which she had announced would be her final season, Kara realized that her last lap around the circuit would be much more enjoyable if Russ came with her. So, she asked him to be her coach.

It’s easy to imagine an arrangement like that going badly. Most of us do not like getting advice from our spouse on mundane matters such as driving directions or how best to fold a t-shirt, let alone having them remind us day after day to keep our javelin back.

But Russ and Kara made it work.

“I’ve loved being her coach,” he said recently. “It’s been fun because we know each other very well. I’ve seen her at her best and worst, and she has seen me at my best and worst, and that’s a perspective you can’t get from other folks.”

Bottom line, having Russ with her every day, especially on trips overseas, made Kara happy, and according to her longtime friend and strength coach Jamie Meyers, Kara “always does well when she’s happy.”

Her performance this summer would seem to support that assertion. In June, she won her ninth national title with a throw of 64.26m. A month later, she took her first-ever World Championships medal with a sixth-round toss of 64.05m. Two weeks after that, she won the Diamond League meeting in Brussels. The 68.11m she threw there was her first PB in twelve years. It was also the best throw in the world this year and is now the American record. She then finished her season by winning the Diamond League title for the first time.

As that meet in a sold-out Letzigrund Stadium concluded, the event winners were feted with a parade and fireworks and a mini-concert. After that, she made her way through the media gauntlet with her usual aplomb, providing thoughtful answers to mundane questions, making sure every reporter got what they needed. When there were no more queries, she looked around and smiled. “And now,” she announced, “I get to see Russ!”

A Long Time Coming

Had Joe Kovacs walked away from the sport during the winter of 2019, as it looked like he might, he’d have retired with the kind of resumé (a World Championship gold and silver, an Olympic silver, a 22.57m PB) that would have placed him among the top ten putters of all time. Not bad for a guy who finished fourth at the NCAA Championships in 2012, his senior year at Penn State, and wasn’t even sure he wanted to try competing as a professional. When I spoke with him after that NCAA final, his main goal in athletics seemed to be surpassing 500 pounds in the bench press. And they say shot putters are meatheads.

But later that summer, Joe hit a big PB–21.08m–at the Olympic Trials, which got him within twenty centimeters of making the team, which got him an invite to live and train in Chula Vista under the guidance of Art Venegas, which put him on the path to building a remarkable career.

Joe KOVACS of the United States competes in the Shot Put Men event during the Weltklasse Zuerich, Diamond League meeting at the Sechselaeutenplatz on Wednesday, September 7, 2022 in Zurich, Switzerland. (Weltklasse Zuerich/Urs Bucher)

He established himself as the best shot putter on the planet in 2015 by blasting a PB of 22.56m in July and then winning the World Championships later that summer in Beijing. And based on some titanic warmup throws (including a reputed 24-meter bomb at Triton in 2014) it looked like Joe might be on the way to taking down Randy Barnes’ world record of 23.12m and making a case for himself as the best putter of all time.

Then, Ryan Crouser happened.

Many people were surprised when Crouser, after flying under the radar all winter and spring, blasted 22.11m to win the Olympic Trials in 2016, but Joe and Art were not surprised. Ryan had been training in Chula Vista prior to the Trials, so they’d gotten a closeup view of his capabilities.

Joe threw 21.78m in Rio, a distance that would have won five of the previous six Games, but when Crouser bombed an Olympic record 22.52m for the gold, it was clear that a new era had dawned in the men’s shot.

Joe upped his PB to 22.57m the following year, and finished ahead of Crouser while taking silver at the London Worlds, but it still seemed likely that at some point Crouser would use his 6’7″ frame and silky smooth rhythm to dominate the event.

To counter that looming threat, Art and Joe began experimenting with technical modifications, which they hoped might turn Joe’s more compact build into an advantage. My understanding is that Joe began setting up in the ring much like the discus thrower you can see in this video. He and Art believed that this new starting position would give him a longer path of acceleration on the ball, which would ultimately translate to farther throws. It was also an approach that a larger thrower like Crouser probably could not employ within the confines of a shot put ring, so if Joe could make it work it would give him a leg up on his main rival.

Ideally, a thrower attempting a major technical change would take a year away from competition to perfect their new style, but that’s hard to do when you make your living as a shot putter, so Joe spent 2018 working on his new approach in practice while using his “old” technique in meets. Understandably, he struggled. He also got injured.

The following winter, newly married to the former Ashley Muffet and living in Columbus, Ohio, where Ashley worked as the throws coach at Ohio State, Joe found himself at a crossroads. He made occasional trips to California to train with Art, but the transition to the new technique did not seem to be working. Meanwhile, he had lost his feel for his “old” style of throwing and was struggling to hit 20 meters. At the same time, being married to Ashley made him realize that he could have a full and happy life outside of the ring, and he began to wonder if he should retire.

Luckily for the sport, Joe decided to stick with it for the 2019 season. Ashley took over as his coach and guided him to a World title in Doha in what will long be remembered as the greatest shot competition ever. It was a remarkable end to a remarkable season, which I wrote about in detail here.

It turns out that Joe and Art were correct in their assessment of Crouser’s potential. He broke the world record in 2021 with a toss of 23.37m, and has surpassed the 23-meter mark in six different comps. But with Ashley’s guidance, Joe has kept pace, taking silver at the Tokyo Games and at this summer’s Worlds with throws of 22.65m and 22.89m respectively.

After Worlds in July, Joe put together a sensational string of performances in Europe including 22.89m at the Gyulai István Memorial in Hungary, 22.65m at the Athletissima in Lausanne, and 22.61m at the Memorial Van Damme in Brussels.

And then, at the Diamond League final in Zurich, he finally breached the 23-meter line with a second-round blast of 23.23m, which put him ahead of Barnes on the all-time list. (You can view Joe’s post-meet comments here.)

Joe and Ashley moved to Nashville two years ago after she accepted a position at Vanderbilt, and they are expecting twins this fall. Will wrangling two babies prove more challenging than keeping up with Crouser? Likely.

But this golden Kovacs v. Crouser era is not going to end just yet. Joe believes that at 33, he is young enough to extend his new PB, and Crouser–who put 22.74m in Zurich despite having been sick for a month when a case of Covid morphed into a sinus infection–is not going anywhere.

However things play out, those gents now occupy the top two spots on the all-time performance list. As they should.

“In The Ring with Coach V” by Vésteinn Hafsteinsson with D. McQuaid #13: An indoor recap.

After participating in four Olympic Games as a discus thrower, Vésteinn Hafsteinsson embarked upon a remarkably successful career as a coach, guiding shot putter Joachim Olsen to a silver medal in the 2004 Olympics, and discus great Gerd Kanter to Olympic and World Championship gold.

Vésteinn’s success has continued with his current training group, which consists of World and Olympic discus champion Daniel Ståhl, Olympic discus silver medalist Simon Pettersson, indoor European shot put silver-medalist and Olympic finalist Fanny Roos, former European U23 discus champion Sven Martin Skagestad, and Nordic Indoor shot put champion Marcus Thomsen.

“In the Ring with Coach V” features insights into how these athletes train and compete, stories from Vésteinn’s long career as an athlete and coach, and thoughts regarding the current state of the sport and how it can be improved.

In this edition, Coach V looks back on some highlights from the indoor season.

Earlier issues, including detailed accounts of Daniel, Simon, and Fanny’s experiences at the Tokyo Olympics may be found at macthrowvideo.com.

Daniel hard at work on the Pension Program

The Pension Program

When a regular person reaches the age of thirty, they are still quite young. For a professional athlete, it is a different story. The body begins to slow down a bit, and it becomes not so easy to recover from strenuous training sessions.

A nutritionist I worked with while I was coaching Gerd Kanter told me that it is probably impossible to break a world record once an athlete turns thirty. 

Daniel is twenty-nine now, and his birthday is August 27th, so if the nutritionist is correct, he has only a few more months during which he might be able to exceed Jürgen Schult’s world record of 74.08m. Jürgen set the record in 1986, then became World Champion in 1987 and Olympic Champion in 1988. This summer, Daniel will try to reverse that order. He is currently the World and Olympic Champion, and has a PB of 71.86m.

Can he reach Jürgen’s record at his advanced age? I believe he has a chance–if we manage his training correctly. That is why I have put him on the “Pension Program” in the weight room.as well as on the throwing field. 

In the Pension Program, Daniel does twenty-five or thirty percent less volume compared to previous years. The high volume phases of his training have typically featured five sets of five reps in his main lifts. There is always room for variation within those 5×5 workouts, but a typical high-volume session under his old plan would consist of twenty-five reps at between 70 and 87.5 percent. 

Most of his workouts this winter featured only three sets, and the reps were usually performed at between 55 and 75 percent. On some days we would do 5-4-3 or 5-3-1 at 70-90 percent, with the 90 percent coming on the single rep in the 5-3-1 workouts.

We have taken the same approach with throwing. For example, in previous years it was not unusual for Daniel to take fifty throws with the Denfi tool in some sessions. Now, the most he takes is thirty to thirty-five.

So far, the Pension Program seems to be good for Daniel. He actually gained strength this winter while training less. He got a PB in bench press of 210 kilograms, and did an easy single at 300k in back squat. 

The lower volume means that Daniel was always fresh enough to throw well during practice and was able to develop his technique, which at this point in his career is the key to him throwing far.

He was very happy on this program all winter, although he felt bad for Fanny  and Simon because they are at an earlier phase in their career where they still have to spend time killing themselves to build muscle.

We usually have an indoor discus competition here in Växjö in late February, which I use to evaluate how we did with our winter training. This year, the competition was on the 25th of February, and the results were good. Daniel got an official mark of 67.62m, but also two longer fouls, one of which we measured over seventy-one meters.

To me, the capacity he showed confirmed that the pension program was working. Now, we see how it goes outdoors.

The happy father with his baby girl Ronja.

A Proud Father

Congratulations to Sven Martin on the birth of his first child, a little girl named Ronja!

I coached Sven Martin mostly digitally twice a week this winter, as he was home in Norway most of the time and I was here in Växjö. He was able to come here twice for a week or two, but I did not see him in person between late January and the beginning of our California training camp on March 30th. 

During our remote sessions, Sven Martin would place his device in different spots to give me the view I needed of his technique. I have tried this with different athletes over the years, and it usually works out pretty well, although I prefer coaching live so I can jump into the ring and put the athlete into different positions. Switching to virtual coaching would be hard on Fanny, Daniel, Marcus, and Simon because they are so used to me being there in person, but Sven Martin did not live in the same town as his former coach either, so he has pretty much always been coached virtually.

The challenge for Sven Martin is to reach a point where he can throw sixty-four or sixty-five meters in no wind against good people. Then, he will be back in the game and we can start thinking about making the final at meets like the European and even the World Championships. 

He is a super smart guy, and we work well together. I would love to see him come back. He threw 65.20m in 2016, but somehow lost his feel and has not thrown a PB since. But, he is physically very gifted. Compared to Simon, Sven Martin is stronger in everything–bench, squats, snatch, you name it. One session last summer, he and Simon were throwing the Denfi tool and Sven Martin beat him by five meters. He is better than Simon in everything, except throwing the discus. 

So, it will be a good challenge to see if we can get him back on track.

Fanny getting ready to launch a season’s best throw of 19.22m in Belgrade.

Indoor Worlds

During the 2021 season, Fanny made huge breakthroughs when she finished second at the European Indoor Championships and seventh at the Olympic Games. You can read the details on her 2021 indoor season here and her outdoor season here

She did extremely well in her training this winter, with many throws over nineteen meters. She struggled, though, to reach those same distances in competitions, and it is clear that the next step for Fanny is for her to get used to competing when the focus is on her. She is very shy by nature, and has always been more comfortable in meets like in the Diamond League where there are lots of good throwers and she can kind of blend in. 

The 2022 Swedish Indoor Championships was a good example of how Fanny struggles at times. The meet was held in our facility in Växjö, where it would seem like she would be super comfortable, but she was by far the best women’s shot putter there and lots of people from her home town came to watch her, and this made her nervous. During her first four throws, she was unable to control the tension she felt and her best throw was 17.36m. When practicing every day in that same ring, she rarely threw less than 18.80m, so we were both pretty frustrated.

Before her final throw, I told her I wanted to test something. I said, “Focus on one thing–have your backswing one meter further back.” I was exaggerating, but the idea was to make her backswing as long and slow as possible so she would stop rushing into the throw. 

Then she had her best throw, 18.95m, for a new Swedish Indoor Championships record. 

The World Indoor Championships was three weeks later, on March 18th, and I was pretty confident that Fanny would throw well because, as I said, she was doing great in training, but also because she would be more comfortable throwing against the top women instead of her being the focus of everyone’s attention.

She threw 18.66m on her first attempt, which made me happy because it would probably get her in the top eight. It ended up taking 18.20m to advance to the final three rounds.

I believe she was in fifth place going into her third throw, and then she moved into second with a season’s best of 19.22m. 

Fanny ended up finishing fourth behind Auriol Dongmo (20.43m), Chase Ealey (20.21m), and Jessica Schilder (19.48m), but I was very happy with how she performed. This was the third major championships in a row where she finished in the top eight, and she showed once again that she now throws her best on the biggest stage. 

She went back into heavy training shortly after the Indoor Worlds, and we are very excited about her prospects for the summer. 

Celebrating after a fine performance at Indoor Worlds.

A Look Back at Indoor Worlds with Josh Awotunde

This past weekend, shot putter Josh Awotunde opened his outdoor season with a solid 21.63m toss to take second place behind Darrell Hill at the Mt. SAC relays. Seeing Josh back in action reminded me that I’ve been meaning to write about a conversation I had with him following his stellar performance at the Indoor World Championships in March, so here goes.

Even for throwers who have thrived at high stakes comps like the NCAA Championships or Olympic Trials, a World Championships or Olympic Games presents a special set of challenges. This is especially true for an athlete competing at an international championships for the first time. That was the case with Josh at Indoor Worlds, but he somehow managed to finish fifth in a loaded field where it took 22.31m to get on the awards stand. A few days afterwards, he was kind enough to explain how he did it.

The first thing that Josh had to figure out after qualifying for the Indoor Worlds squad with a toss of 21.74m at the USATF Championships in Spokane in February, was how to manage the travel from his home in South Carolina to Belgrade,Serbia–site of the Indoor Worlds–with as little disruption to his normal training schedule as possible.

Josh trains at his alma mater, the University of South Carolina, with Mike Sergent, his college  coach, and he normally throws three sessions per week, two a little easier and one with high intensity. Mondays he focuses on technique, Wednesdays on rhythm, and Fridays on distance. 

As it turned out, that schedule matched up well with the demands of traveling to Belgrade for a Saturday competition. Josh was able to do his normal technique day at home that Monday, travel on Tuesday, do his rhythm session while recovering from the flight on Wednesday, then delay his Friday distance session to Saturday, where instead of throwing full out in a practice, he’d be doing so in the actual competition.

Josh’s ability to maintain a fairly normal routine made it a lot easier to feel comfortable that week in spite of the rigors of travel and the inevitable jet lag. 

The next challenge Josh had to navigate involved implements.

At the Indoor Worlds (and at all indoor meets in Europe), the putters actually use the outdoor shot. That would not generally pose a problem for someone who trains in South Carolina where the weather is conducive to throwing outdoors during the winter months. It’s not like Josh had to scramble to find somewhere to throw the outdoor implement during the three weeks between the US and World Championships. But at competitions like the Indoor Worlds there is a catch–the meet organizers provide the implements. 

A putter is allowed to throw his or her own shot only if it is of a brand that the organizers do not provide, and I’m told that this is rarely the case. 

No big deal, right? Shots are shots. But the implements provided to the athletes are typically brand new with their nice, slick coat of paint unblemished by wear. And having, in the middle of the biggest competition of your life, to figure out how to get comfortable gripping an implement with an odd feel to it is no easy task. Can you imagine someone handing Tiger Woods a brand new driver as he walked to the first tee at the Masters and telling him he was required to use that club? Me either. Luckily, Josh kept his cool and was able to manage with the shot they provided.

Another tricky aspect of competing at meets like Indoor Worlds is the pre-competition procedure, which tends to be quite different from that followed at other meets. At the USATF Indoor Championships, for example, the putters were taken to the competition ring about thirty minutes before the action started. I was there in the arena watching, and I made note of the number of  throws guys like Josh, Ryan Crouser, Payton Otterdahl, and Darrell Hill took prior to the comp. Most got in eight. Then, after a pause of maybe ten minutes for introductions, round one commenced. 

The situation at Indoor Worlds was very different. According to Josh, on the night of the men’s shot comp, the putters were given an hour to take throws at a ring away from the main venue. They were then deposited in a call room where they sat for thirty or forty minutes. After that,  they were taken into the oval where each thrower was allowed no more than three warmup throws in the competition ring. Then, there was a ten-minute delay for introductions. All this stopping and starting can make it difficult to find your rhythm. If you need eight throws to feel ready, you obviously have to take several during the early warmup period. But then you’d be sitting around for at least half an hour before completing your throws. And if you start burning energy two hours prior to the comp, you might run out of gas when the throws actually count. 

Luckily for Josh, Ryan Crouser was also throwing in Belgrade and he’d been through this drill many times. After talking to Ryan, Josh decided not to take any throws in the early warmup period, and to make due with the three he’d get in the competition ring.

“It was the fewest warmup throws I’ve ever had for a meet,” he says, “so I went straight to fulls.”

This is something I saw Val Allman experiment with at the US Outdoor Championships in Des Moines in 2019. Her flight of the women’s discus was given an extremely long warmup period, something like forty minutes, but Val just sat back and relaxed for most of it. Then, a few minutes before the competition began, she stepped in and took two full throws. Afterwards, she explained that this was a routine she’d developed to prepare for championship meets where you can’t count on more than a couple warmup attempts. 

The Indoor Worlds was Josh’s first experience with that approach to warming up, but he went in knowing what to expect and didn’t let the relative strangeness of it bother him.

Which was a good thing, since the odd rhythm of competing at Indoor Worlds did not end once the comp began. There were eighteen men’s putters in Belgrade, and they were all lumped into one flight. For Josh, who was twelfth in the order, that meant a thirty-minute delay between his final warmup throw and first competition throw, and an unusually long wait between attempts during the first three rounds due to the size of the field. Luckily, Josh was prepared for this as well.

He explained that, “During the competition I’d relax until there were six throws left before I was up, then I’d do some drills. When I was three throws away, I’d take off my warmups and tell myself, ‘Allright, it is time to go!’”

The plan allowed Josh to keep his chill, avoid the dreaded opening-round foul (he opened with 20.74m and followed that with 21.41m), and nearly equal his indoor PB with that 21.70m in round three.

That put him in fourth, well behind Darlan Romani (22.53m), Crouser (22.44m) and Tom Walsh (22.29m) but safely in the final. At that point, most observers–myself included–probably thought, “Okay, Josh, good job. Now you can relax, because there is no way you are breaking into that top three.”

But, that’s not what Josh was thinking, and his attitude may explain why–in addition to his considerable talent and the friendly advice from Crouser that helped him prepare–he was able to throw so well in his first Worlds. As the final three rounds began and the rest of the shot putting community was getting ready to enjoy a fight to the finish between Romani, Crouser, and Walsh, Josh was sitting there thinking, “I could win this.”

“I haven’t seen any throws over 22.50m in practice,” he recounted later, “but I watched Auriol Dongmo win on her last throw in the women’s comp, and my motto in practice has always been ‘last throw/best throw’, so I tried to get as pumped up as I could and just see what would happen.”

He fouled his fourth and fifth attempts, then entered the ring for his final throw “pissed off” and determined to unleash a big one.

“I tried to speed up out of the back a little bit. Of course, I have to be patient with my upper body at the start and the initial movement out to ninety degrees has to be easy, but once I move out wide around my left and get into position, it is time to go.”

The result was a throw that landed past the twenty-two meter line, but…was called a foul by an official who determined that Josh had just barely stepped on the ring to the right of the toeboard on his reverse.

Josh immediately protested, and the ever-helpful Crouser stepped up and reminded him to walk out the back of the ring, so they couldn’t nick him on that. 

Unfortunately, there was no video available from an angle that would have provided a clear view of the spot where Josh might have fouled, so his protest was disallowed.

Most would agree that fifth place at your first World Championships is a successful outing for an up-and-coming thrower, but Josh’s takeaway was that he should have thrown farther.

Of the big foul, he says that “the finish was too short and quick. I did a lot of non-reverse throws in practice getting ready for the Worlds, and that usually helps me, but now I think I should have focused more on my reverse a couple of days before the comp. My reverse in the meet ended up being super quick and short, so I didn’t get everything out of the finish. When I’m at my best, I’m out over the toeboard, but in Belgrade it looked like I was doing a discus reverse. If I had really extended over the toeboard, that last throw would have been crazy.”

With guys like Romani, Walsh, Crouser, Hill, Joe Kovacs, and Zane Weir (who had a huge foul of his own in Belgrade–reportedly in the 22.70m range) lining up to do battle at this summer’s Outdoor Worlds, shot put fans can expect a lot of crazy in the near future.

And with the experience he gained in Serbia combined with his phenomenal physical talent, it will be no surprise to see Josh battling for a spot on the podium again in July.

Reflections on the Men’s Shot Put Comp at the 2022 USATF Indoor Championships

The Slow Squeeze

I’ve never wrestled an anaconda, but I imagine it’s similar to competing against Ryan Crouser–you go in with very little chance of winning and come out feeling thoroughly pulverized.

And like an anaconda, Crouser takes his time pulping you. With Ryan, it is a very deliberate process that begins during warmups. At the recent USATF Indoor Championships in Spokane, he started with an easy, walking stand throw, followed by a regular non-reverse stand and a half-speed, non-reverse full that plopped down on the twenty-meter line.

He began his next full with a static start, and dropped that one around twenty-one meters. Another full from a static start went 21.50m. He used a longer windup only on his final two warmups. One reached 21.75m, the other 22.00m.

Notice a pattern there? We’ve all seen throwers blast away during warmups, desperate to build confidence by launching bombs. As Olympic champion (twice) and current world record holder, Crouser is long past the confidence-building stage, so he uses warmups to…warm up. In Spokane, he slowly and precisely increased the amount of effort he put into each attempt, staying under control and refusing to be rushed. He seemed assured that the big throws would come if he just maintained his rhythm, and he was right.

Throwing last in the order, Crouser began applying the death squeeze with a toss of 22.03m from a static start. He missfired on his second attempt and walked out the front. Then, sticking with the static start in round three, he went 22.34m, to essentially put the top spot out of reach.

Those, by the way, were the164th and 165th throws over twenty-two meters in Ryan’s career. To put that in perspective, John Godina, a four-time World Champion and the best putter in the business from 1995 to 2005, threw twenty-two meters exactly three times. Ever.

Oh, and Crouser is not yet thirty years old.

One might think that the folks running the meet there in Spokane would have made it a priority to keep the momentum rolling considering they had the world record holder putting on a show center stage, but alas, other, inexplicable considerations took precedence and the shot comp was paused for fifteen minutes.

When festivities resumed, Crouser set about asphyxiating any remaining hopes of an upset.

He later said that after his first three attempts he decided to stop “dancing around” and so began using his full windup. The result was a 22.51m toss, the fifth time in his career that he surpassed seventy-three feet.

He followed that up with 23.39m and a foul.

When it was over, one question remained. Even in this current Golden Age of shot putting, with its proliferation of twenty-two-meter throwers, can Crouser, barring injury, be beaten?

What if, for example, a competitor dropped a monster throw early, and instead of leading by half-a-meter or more from the get go, Crouser had to play catch up? Would that knock him off his game?

Well, at the 2019 Worlds, you may recall that Tom Walsh opened with a meeting record 22.90m, which Joe Kovacs surpassed by a centimeter in round six. Minutes later, Crouser stepped in for his final attempt. The result? A 22.90m PB.

He didn’t win that night, but he showed that he can take a punch and not get rattled.

And he is a significantly better and more consistent shot putter now than he was three years ago in Doha.

Walsh and Kovacs will no doubt be in Eugene this summer for a Worlds rematch. Walsh has reportedly separated from his longtime coach, Dale Stevenson, and it remains to be seen how that will affect his season. Joe, has been holed up in Nashville (his wife and coach, Ashley, works at Vanderbilt), apparently plotting his title defense…

Maggie Ewen, certainly an astute judge of throwing potential, told me back in 2019 that Darrell Hill (more about him below) has as much talent as Crouser or Kovacs. After a difficult, injury-plagued 2021 season, can he get it together and challenge Crouser? Can any of these guys?

Time will tell, but one thing is for sure. There has never been a better moment to be a shot put fan.

Confidence Men

If you are looking for a doable challenge, I’d recommend trying something easy like becoming an astronaut or breaking the world hotdog eating record (seventy-six in ten minutes) before taking a whack at making a US Olympic or Worlds team in the men’s shot.

Right now, nine of the top twenty male putters in the World Athletics rankings throw for the United States, and that does not include defending World Champion and Olympic silver medalist Joe Kovacs, who has yet to compete this season.

Even with the United States likely to be granted four spots in the men’s shot at the 2022 Worlds, at least six of the planet’s best putters who happen to be American will be stuck watching from home when the new World shot put champion is crowned on July 17th.

A quick word on the number of entries for Worlds. In individual events, a nation is allowed to send three athletes who have met the World Athletics entry standards–four if an athlete from that country has received a bye. The defending World champion gets one. That’s Joe. The current Diamond League champion gets one. That’s Crouser. However, even with both of those guys receiving byes, no country can send more than four competitors in an individual event, so the US Championships will basically come down to a battle for the remaining two spots. If somehow Joe or Crouser were to finish out of the top four at those Championships, then…I don’t know what the hell happens because the USATF places a premium on order of finish at the National Championships in selecting the team. Stay tuned.

However you slice it, making the Worlds team for the US will be at least seventy-seven hotdogs hard, which is why few would blame Josh Awotunde for taking advantage of his dual citizenship (US/Nigeria) to avoid the process altogether–especially after a PB toss of 21.84m at last summer’s Olympic Trials left him in fifth place and off the squad for Tokyo.

But, speaking a few days prior to the US indoor Championships last month, Josh said he was determined to represent the US on the world stage.

He called the idea of making the team for Indoor Worlds a “dream come true” and added that he wanted nothing more than to compete in an Olympics or Worlds wearing the “red white and blue.”

He made that dream a reality in Spokane by dropping an indoor PB of 21.74m in round two. That throw held up for second place, and a similar toss in Belgrade might put him in line for his first World Championship medal.

Roger Steen finished four places behind Josh at the Trials, despite producing a PB of 20.41m. Considering that he was twenty-nine years old and finished the season ranked number fifty-two by World Athletics (with sixteen Americans rated ahead of him) the sensible move after last summer would probably have been to take a bow, call it a career, and walk away satisfied with the fact that it was a huge accomplishment for a former DIII athlete to place in the top ten at one of the greatest shot put competitions ever.

But Roger chose to soldier on, and for five rounds in Spokane (19.55m, two fouls around 20.00m, 20.04m, 20.33m) it seemed not to have been such a good decision. He resembled a stubby Don Quixote tilting at windmill-sized competitors like Crouser, Payton Otterdahl, and Darrell Hill.

Then, on his final attempt, Roger Steen, former University of Wisconsin Eau-Claire “Blugold” (don’t ask), joined the world of bigtime shot putters with his first ever twenty-one meter toss.

That throw–21.07m to be exact–didn’t get him on the squad for Indoor Worlds (he finished third in Spokane, and only the top two make the team), and he’ll have to add nearly a meter to it at the Outdoor Championships to give himself a chance to make the podium there, but…Roger Steen believes. When asked after the comp how he plans to get in the mix outdoors, he replied that he just needs to “keep doing what we’re doing.”

Windmills, beware.

Fair is Foul

The rotational technique has revolutionized shot putting, and also made life more complicated for officials. When a glider reverses at the end of a throw, they generally land with their right foot flat on the ground against the toeboard. If they foul, it is usually because they lose their balance and have to step over the toeboard and out of the ring to regain it. Easy to see and easy to call. Rotational putters, on the other hand, typically land high on the ball of the right foot after reversing, then hop around a bit as they struggle to manage the rotational forces they’ve created. As they do, it is not uncommon for the bottom the their right foot to make contact with the toeboard. As long as their foot touches only the side and not the top of the toeboard, a foul should not be called.

Easy to explain, but difficult to discern in real time with the naked eye. And every once in a while, an official–perhaps struggling with the pressure to make an accurate call–will start assessing fouls that appear to exist only in their imagination.

Tom Walsh’s experience during the qualification round in Tokyo comes to mind. The official watching the toeboard flagged him on two of his three attempts, though he clearly had not fouled. Fortunately, throwers are allowed to protest questionable calls, and Tom’s third throw was declared legal after video review. That toss got him into the final, where he finished with the bronze medal.

Darrell Hill had a similar experience in Spokane, minus the happy ending. After finishing fourth at the Trials last summer, he came into Spokane on Sunday looking to re-establish himself as a top contender for Eugene 2022 as Maggie Ewen and Chase Ealey had done in the women’s shot the previous day.

And he looked strong during the first three rounds, approaching twenty-two meters on his second attempt.

Unfortunately, all three of Darrell’s efforts were deemed fouls, with the official apparently dinging him for touching the top of the toeboard with his heel.

Darrell protested after his third throw, but the officials had trouble getting the replay to function.

In the meantime, they granted him an additional attempt, which was measured as 20.93m. Had it counted, that throw would have allowed Darrell to continue in rounds four, five, and six, but a moment later an official informed him that they were finally able to examine the replay of his third attempt and that the foul call would stand.

That had to be extremely disappointing for Darrell, but one thing he can take away from the experience is that he is in twenty-two meter form with several months of training still ahead before the Outdoor Nationals.

I remember covering the Prefontaine Classic in June of 2019, and watching Joe Kovacs launch twenty-two meter throws in warmups (Joe takes a very different approach to warming up than does Crouser).His best toss in the competition was 21.39m, but he told me afterwards that he was encouraged by the capacity he showed in being able to move the ball far with the Doha Worlds still months away.

Things turned out pretty well for Joe that year, and they just might for Darrell this time around.