University of Nebraska throws coach Scott Cappos is more than just a pretty face.
I’ve known him since his days coaching the throws at the University of Iowa where he combined passion and intelligence to produce a fine string of throwers. At the University of Nebraska, Scott has developed more outstanding throwers, including 2015 NCAA qualifiers…
Nick Percy
Will Lohman
and Sarah Firestone.
I asked Scott about his approach to peaking for the big meets, and he graciously shared the following information.
First, some general guidelines…
Glide Shot Put and Discus Throw
Peak Training
Design the peak phase based on what works best for each athlete. Observe how each athlete reacts to different training methods during the season and use the style that works best for each individual during the peak phase. Look for patterns during various training sessions and competitions to see what works for each athlete.
Basic Recommendation For Peaking
Keep the training design consistent during the season
Reduce the training volume by 30-50%
Keep the intensity of training high for all the lifts except the squat
Throw lighter implements for speed during the peak phase
(30% of the total throws)
Limit heavy implements during the peak phase
(10% of the total throws)
Follow the same format for the competition during practice. If an athlete has the shot put on day one, then the discus on day two, set up the practices the same way during the peak phase.
Do not take off days, use low intensity medicine ball throws, easy throwing drills and dynamic warm up exercises focusing on range of motion to keep the athlete loose and active.
Individualize each athletes peak program based on previous success and failures during the year.
…then a sample peak week for a glide shot putter…
Glide Shot Put Sample Peak Sessions
Sample #1 (early in the week)
Stand Throw Series
Heavy shot put
Stand throw with no reverse x3
Stand throw with reverse x3
Glide with Reverse
Mix weights 1-1 (standard-light alternate each throw)
Glide throws x12
Sample #2 (last session before competition)
Stand Throw Series
Standard shot put
Stand throw with no reverse x3
Stand throw with reverse x3
Glide with Reverse
Straight leg glides x3
Glide throws with standard shot x10
Glide throws with light shot x4
…followed by a multi-week peaking plan…
Day 1
Day 2
Day 4 (Day 1 NCAA Finals)
Reps
Hang Clean
3-3-2-2-2
Squat
6-5-(4×3)
Hang Snatch
3-2-2-2
week 1 (off or home meet)
60-70-75-80-85
week 1 (off or home meet)
60-70-75-80-85
week 1 (off or home meet)
60-70-75-80
week 2 (Big Ten)
65-70-75-80-x
week 2 (Big Ten)
65-70-75-80-x
week 2 (Big Ten)
65-75-80-85
week 3 (off)
60-70-75-80-85
week 3 (off)
60-70-75-80-90
week 3 (off)
65-75-80-90
week 4 (NCAA Prelim)
60-70-75-75-75
week 4 (NCAA Prelim)
60-70-75-80-x
week 4 (NCAA Prelim)
65-75-80-85
week 5 (off)
65-75-80-85-90
week 5 (off)
65-75-80-85-x
week 5 (off)
65-70-75-80
week 6 (NCAA Finals)
65-70-70-x
Snatch Pulls
4×2
Bench
6-5-(4×2)
F Sqt (1-3-5) Speed Sqt (2-4-6)
6-5-(3×3)
week 1 (off or home meet)
85
week 1 (off or home meet)
60-70-75-75-75-75
week 1 (off or home meet)
60-65-70-70-70
week 2 (Big Ten)
x
week 2 (Big Ten)
65-75-80-80-80-x
week 2 (Big Ten)
50
week 3 (off)
100
week 3 (off)
60-70-75-80-85-90
week 3 (off)
60-70-75-75-75
week 4 (NCAA Prelim)
x
week 4 (NCAA Prelim)
65-75-80-85-85-85
week 4 (NCAA Prelim)
50
week 5 (off)
100
week 5 (off)
65-75-80-85-90-x
week 5 (off)
60-70-75-80-80
x
week 6 (NCAA Finals)
50
DB Push Press
4×3 (light)
Step Ups
4x3e
Incline (1-3-5) Speed B (2-4-6)
6-4-3-3
week 1 (off or home meet)
60-70-75-80
week 2 (Big Ten)
60
Circuit x3
Circuit x2
week 3 (off)
60-70-75-80
Box jumps or hurdle hops
x10
MB hammer tosses
x10e
week 4 (NCAA Prelim)
50
Shot put sit ups
x10e
MB v-ups
x20
week 5 (off)
65-75-85-85
Walking winds with plate
x10e
MB trunk twist
x10e
week 6 (NCAA Finals)
40
MB shot put throws
x5e
…and a specific plan for Will Lohman beginning the Monday after the regional meet… Monday Shot 6 stand (heavy) 6 half turns (heavy) 12 full (4 heavy, 8 standard)
Not a bad year for the University of Virginia throwing squad!
Christine Bohan…
…qualified for Nationals and broke the school record in the shot put with a toss of 16.73m (54’10.75″).
Jordan Young…
…qualified for Nationals in the shot, disc, and hammer and in one season broke the school record in the hammer (70.73m, 232’1″) and moved into second place on the UVA all-time list in the shot (19.80m, 64’11.5″) and the disc (62.27m, 204’3″).
Filip Mihaljevic…
…qualified for Nationals in the shot and disc, and sits ahead of Young on both lists as the new school record holder in each (20.16m, 66’1.75″ and 63.11m, 207’0″).
The man behind this success is the current UVA throws coach: 2009 NCAA discus champion, two-time Olympian, and Croatian national record-holder Martin Maric.
As the NCAA Championships approach, I was curious to find out how different coaches approached the difficult task of coaxing peak performances out of their athletes during the Conference/Regionals/Eugene gauntlet.
Here are some of Coach Maric’s thoughts on that topic conveyed to me via email:
First question: Are you afraid that fellow Croatian Stipe Zunic will use his kick-boxing skills on you if your guys beat him?
Haha, Stipe is such a nice of a guy, the only person he would kick-box if he losses would be himself. (editor’s note: I would pay to seethat).
Seriously, what I’d like to do is get an idea of how you have approached these big end-of-the-season meets (ACC, Regionals, NCAA Championships) with your throwers.I know that Filip, Jordan, and Christine are in different situations in terms of what kind of athletes they are and what events they are competing in, but I’d be interested in how you trained them over the last month in the weight room and while throwing. Are there certain lifts that you have emphasized? Certain reps and percentages? How do you manipulate the number of throws per session and perhaps the weight of the implements they throw in order to help them have their best performances this time of year?
No two throwers are the same so no two training plans should be the same. In preparation for ACC, Regionals and NCAAs I have reduced number of reps and sets to each of them, but not in the same manner. Ideally, I would have my throwers have a similar lifting plan to those of other world class throwers. A plan that includes bench press, incline bench press, clean, jerk, push-press snatch, deadlift and many others. However, reality is not always perfect and injuries could dictate what one can or can not do. Our group was mostly without injuries, with the exception of Jordan who came to us with back problems.
When it comes to intensities and repetitions in training at this time of the year, Christine, for instance, responds better with high-intensity and low-reps when it comes to power and Olympic lifts in the days before major competitions. I have set up a training plan for her to peak for ACCs and Regionals where the intensity stayed high but the number of reps were reduced to about 60% of that in the Fall/Spring training. I am not very strict when it comes to percentages of 1-repetition-max since that measure is relative to a particular day. Some days one feels better then others due to numerous reasons, so obviously his/hers % of 1RM will fluctuate as well. But if we would to put a percentage to Christine’s lifts’ intensity it would have been around 90% of her 1RM. We would do about 2 to 3 reps on the last, heaviest set and no more then 5 sets per lift. Also, since Christine is more stable technically this year, and In order to peak, we have also used 3kg shot put in training for the past 4 weeks in 2 out of 4 weekly shot put sessions, which proved to be very beneficial for Christine.
For Jordan, due to a long history of back injuries we avoided any Olympic or power lifts that might worsen his health further and rather focused simply on his technical development in the field and endurance training. With that said, I am still developing a comprehensive lifting plan for Jordan that we can hopefully start following this Fall. However, we were able to postpone/time his peak with different specific exercises such as Underhand-Overhead Shot Put Throws, Russian Twists, Stadium Runs and Walks, Planks and many others. Since Jordan is extremely good in Hammer/Weight, Shot and Discus, we needed to keep his endurance training at the highest level possible in order for him to maintain a high number of good quality throws during the week. Jordan would throw Hammer/Weight 4 times a week, discus and shot 3 times a week. Wednesdays would be easy and Sundays he will have off. He would throw two events each day at the number of throws that would never exceed 100 per day. As you can calculate easy, that could add up to as high as 2,400 throws a month, therefore, it was very important for us to keep his endurance up. There were days when Jordan would be able to do up to 100 stadium walks, but also there were days when he would only complete 10 or 15. We went off the feeling more than of the percentages or numbers for him this year. I believe that finding the right balance between hard training and quality rest is very important, for that reason, as you can see, I had somewhat of an unorthodox type of training for Jordan that was based more on technical and endurance this year rather then strength and speed development. As the season was approaching the end we reduced the number of throws and intensity of specific and endurance training by almost 50%, which is why I believe Jordan was able to throw his PRs in 2 out of 3 of his events at the Regionals.
With Filip I use more of a “traditional” type of training both in weight-room and field. Filip responds the best with significant reduction in his lifting and number of throws before his main competitions of the year, so we have reduced his power and Olympic lifts to about 60% of 1RM and started to incorporate lighter implements in training. Filip now does not exceed 30 throws per throwing session both in discus and shot, and does not practice more then 90min in this period, throwing and conditioning combined.
Overall, reduction in repetitions and intensity generally works very well for most individuals. However, there are exceptions, such is Christine in my group, where high intensity is necessary to be maintained at this time of the year in order to produce the best results. It is not always easy to conclude which athlete responds the best to which type of training, but it is very important not to rush into conclusions even if at the cost of the athlete’s “underperformance” in his or hers first year of college.
So there you have it. Wise words from a coach who currently has one of the deepest throwing squads in the country. And by the way, Bohan, Young, and Mihaljevic are all sophomores.
So they hand over my passport just in time for me to catch the subway to O’Hare, and I make it to the gate of the Frankfort flight just as they are about to start boarding. It is the same gate that my wife and I flew out of in August when we got bumped up to first class, so my memories of it are, to say the least, fond. This time they call me up and hand me a ticket for a seat in economy, which was fine by me–I just wanted to get to Germany.
Turns out I got a seat in a row all by myself with plenty of leg room. Just as I was settling in, a voice comes over the intercom.
“Passenger Dan McQuaid, please come forward.”
I was none too happy to hear that, but come forward I did, only to be met by a guy from the ticket counter who was now standing just inside the entrance to the plane.
“You’re Dan McQuaid?”
“Yes.”
“Grab your stuff. We just had an opening in first class.”
He didn’t have to tell me twice.
I spent the next three hours stuffing my face, then watched a little TV, took a nice snooze, watched a little more TV and next thing I know, we are in Germany!
So, suck it Air Berlin. It’s going to be a short trip because they still won’t give me credit for the flight I missed or let me switch to a Saturday return flight, but at least I got here!
And apropos of nothing, I’d have to say that having gone through security twice at O’Hare, twice at the Federal Building, and once in Frankfort (I ended up taking Luftansa from there to Berlin) Frankfort has by far the friendliest and most thorough security. They even gave me a little extra feel because I accidentally left a pen in my shirt pocket.
It seemed like the perfect plan. My wife’s sister who lives in Berlin recently had a hip replacement. My wife wanted someone to go and stay with her for a few days to make sure she’s doing okay.
Chivalrous bastard that I am, I volunteered.
My school has the entire week off. I got a great fare on Air Berlin. I made a lunch date with Torsten Schmidt, the coach of Robert Harting, so that I could continue to badger him into helping me understand why the Germans consistently produce great discus throwers.
My wife and mother-in-law dropped me at the airport on Saturday and then headed to the outlet mall while I breezed through security.
Got a couple of magazines. A nice iced tea. A rather excellent gyro.
They begin to call out group numbers. I heard mine, stepped up and handed over my boarding pass and passport, the guy takes a look at it, then looks at me and says “Please step over to the counter.”
As I do, he yells to the counter person “Check his passport!”
At this point, I imagine everyone in the vicinity figured they had just nabbed a terrorist trying to board with a fake passport. I could not imagine what was the deal. Then they told me.
“Sir, your passport expires in two months. You cannot travel to Germany within three months of your passport expiring.”
Imagine my vexation.
I stood there probably looking a bit stunned and watched the plane fly away without me.
After a while, the gate supervisor explained to me that this was a fairly new regulation and that I might be able to get an expedited passport on Monday and they would put me on their next flight, which would not be until Tuesday.
My immensely patient wife came back to the airport to get me and immediately upon our arrival home started working the phone to make sure Air Berlin was going to honor the supervisor’s promise that I would get on the Tuesday flight.
Long story short, they were less than keen about doing that in spite of my wife’s pointing out that that they ought to let a guy know there might be a problem with his passport before he is ten feet from boarding the plane.
The last person she spoke to in Berlin finally told her that I should show up for the Tuesday flight and basically throw myself on the mercy of the ticket agent.
At that point we had no idea if they’d let me on the flight or if they’d say “tough luck” and make us eat the cost of the ticket.
Luckily, we had one other option. If I could get a new passport on Monday and get to O’Hare by 4:00ish I might be able to use a buddy pass on United (another of my wife’s sisters is a stew) that would at least get me to Frankfort. From there I could figure out how to get to Berlin and then come home on the return portion of my Air Berlin ticket.
If you can’t tell by now that my wife is a saint, just know that she spent about seven hours at the passport bureau with me on Monday and if you think that was a barrel of laughs…try it some time.
Is anyone else astonished that the IAAF chose Qatar to host the 2019 World Championships?
Let’s see…Qatar has been strongly suspected of bribing their way into hosting the soccer world cup in 2022, they have been accused of badly mistreating the foreign workers that they import for construction projects, and the competition will have to be delayed until late September/early October to avoid the insane summer temperatures in that region.
Great call IAAF!
Here are a couple of excellent articles on this matter:
The discus qualification rounds were held during the evening session of the first day of competition (Tuesday, August 12) and the weather was excellent, as was my view of the cage:
Those photographers did not linger very long, and I was able to take some nice vids from my seat, which was in the last row–a testament to the intimate layout at Letzigrund.
Here, by the way, is a link to those vids:
I was especially jacked up about the prospect of seeing two of the all-time greats appearing in this competition, one–Robert Harting–still at his peak, the other–Virgilius Alekna–nearing the end of the road.
I had the pleasure of seeing Alekna compete four times in the old Letzigrund Stadium when he was in his prime. Here is a link to a vid I made of the 2000 competition when he hit 70 meters on four of six throws:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iF_ez98mpC0
And here is a link to an article I wrote about the 2005 Zurich meeting and a rather humorous encounter I had with Alekna the next day:
Suffice it to say, I am a big fan of that man. He always carried himself with great dignity. After those 70-meter throws he might raise an arm to acknowledge the crowd, but at the same time he’d smile sheepishly, seeming almost embarrassed by the attention.
I’ve always wondered if he felt like murdering Robert Fazekas in 2004. If you recall, Fazekas prevented Alekna from enjoying a well-deserved victory lap celebrating his second Olympic gold. Fazekas defeated Alekna but not the drug testers in Athens, so Alekna received his medal in a delayed ceremony. Fazekas also kept Alekna from collecting a share of that year’s Golden League grand prize money by handing the large Lithuanian his only Golden League loss that season (athletes had to go undefeated to get a piece of the big prize).
But to be honest, it is difficult to imagine Alekna getting really cheesed off about anything. He reminds me of the ancient Roman hero Cincinnatus, who in times of war would set aside his plow, lead the Romans to victory, then quietly return to his fields caring nothing for glory or acclaim.
Harting, on the other hand, is more like Achilles. He carries himself with an undeniable air of superiority. And, like Achilles, he has earned the right to do that by defeating all challengers. In The Iliad, the Trojans are full of piss and vinegar as long as Achilles is away from the battlefield. But the minute he shows up looking to avenge the death of his friend Patroclus, they know it is all over for them.
So it is with the world’s best discus throwers. When I ran into Piotr Malachowski, the Polish record holder and this season’s world leader with a throw of 69.28m, in New York last June the first thing I said to him was “It is great to meet you. You are a fantastic thrower!”
His reply?
“Yes, but Harting always beats me.”
What makes Harting an interesting character, though, is that in conversation he is very self-deprecating. I ran into him in that same hotel lobby in New York where I had spoken to Malachowski, and he was extremely gracious. He had just arrived from the airport after a trans-Atlantic flight but he patiently answered my questions, and then answered some more following his win the next day at the Adidas Grand Prix meeting. Here are links to those two interviews:
Anyway, it turned out to be an interesting juxtaposition watching these two great champions, both competing in flight one of the prelims in Zurich. Alekna looked as smooth as he ever did, but simply could not generate the power necessary to reach the 64-meter automatic qualifier mark. The best he could muster was a first-round 59.35m.
Harting, flush with power, qualified easily by hitting 67.01m on his first attempt.
Gerd Kanter also looked sharp in the prelims, throwing 65.79m to go one-and-done.
Malachowski ended up taking all three of his attempts, ultimately reaching 64.98m.
I left the stadium that night thinking that we might see a pretty good battle between those three in the next day’s final.
As mentioned in my last post, I headed over to the Hilton Hotel early the next morning in order to attend a German team press conference. Afterwards, I sat down in the lobby to make some notes and eventually looked up to see a very tall man ambling past the front desk. It was Torsten Schmidt, a 2004 Olympian and, since last November, the coach of Robert Harting.
From what I understand, Germans, unlike Americans, are not comfortable with casual friendliness. My brother-in-law has told me that when a German meets another German he must speak to that person in a formal way until given permission to switch over to a more familiar style of address. In the press conference I had just attended, for example, I noticed that at least one of the German reporters had addressed David Storl as “Herr Storl” even though the reporter was much older than the shot putter.
I was a worried then, that I might cause offense by springing upon the unsuspecting Coach Schmidt and interrupting a heretofore peaceful morning stroll.
But doggonit, a fellow only lives once, and how often do you see the coach of the world’s best discus thrower wandering through a hotel lobby?
So, I pounced.
And it turns out he is a really nice man. I think he spent the first couple of minutes of our conversation wondering who in the hell I was and why in God’s name I was asking him questions, but eventually he understood that I was a fellow discus geek and we had a very nice chat.
He told me that he had retired from competition in 2007, and by 2009 was coaching young throwers at the German training center in Berlin.
I asked him if he felt a lot of pressure going from coaching teenagers to coaching the defending Olympic champion, but he said no because Harting has such a clear idea of what he needs to do to perform well, and that even when his form is a bit off he is strong enough to throw far.
In fact, according to Coach Schmidt, Harting’s entry was flawed on his qualifier, but he was able to muscle it 67 meters.
After a few minutes, I wished Coach Schmidt good luck in that night’s final, and headed off to the stadium to watch the women’s hammer qualifying.
It rained throughout the entire hammer competition, but the sun reappeared as I made my way towards the train station with the idea of heading back to Winterthur to relax for a couple of hours before returning to Letzigrund for the evening session.
On the way, I stopped at a plaza in downtown Zurich stocked full of track-related activities and displays, and dominated by this temporary wooden structure:
The reason that all of the table umbrellas are tied up is that the wind was really whipping, and eventually blew so strong that the start of the evening session was delayed some 90 minutes.
After a nice nap back at my brother-in-law’s apartment, I saw news of the delay on Twitter but wasn’t sure how it would affect the start of the discus final, so I headed over to the Winterthur train station in plenty of time to get back to Letzigrund in case it proceeded on schedule.
And who should I run into on the train platform, but the fine Dutch discus thrower Eric Cadee and his girlfriend Kai Kand, the former heptathlete from Estonia.
I met Eric last June when I retrieved his shoe on Randall’s Island in New York. It was the day before the Diamond League meeting, and I had headed over to Icahn Stadium to see if any of the throwers were practicing. Eric was there with 2012 Olympic silver medalist Ehsan Hadadi, and they wanted to try out the ring but it was entirely filled with water from a morning shower.
I quickly snapped into Coach McQuaid mode, rounded up a broom and some towels, and cleaned up the ring. Eric just wanted to take some easy shoe tosses, and I shagged for him so that he didn’t have to keep walking through the wet grass. He and Ehsan were both very pleasant to talk to, and after they were done practicing I taped a quick interview with each. You can find those interviews here:
Unfortunately, Eric did not throw well in the qualifying in Zurich, so he was on his way to attend the discus final as a spectator.
It was great fun talking to Eric and Kai on the journey to the stadium, and I couldn’t help but fantasize about some day coaching their children. They are smart and friendly and just happen to be world class athletes. Eric and Kai, if you read this just know that the Chicago suburbs have lots of parks and excellent schools.
I mentioned that Malachowski seemed not to be at his best, and Eric said that he (Malachowski) was struggling with his timing and confidence. “I told him, just remember you are the defending European champion. You’ve thrown 71 meters!”
When we arrived at the stadium, the wind was swirling, the temperature was dropping, and the decathlon javelin was just getting underway. This meant that the discus final would not begin for another two hours.
Always one to make the best of a bad situation, I filled the time by eating brats and pretending to be interested in the decathlon.
Finally, the javelin sector lines were removed, the discus sector lines were set out, and the finalists were ushered into the stadium.
I had paid 140 francs for a second row seat hoping to be close to the cage for the final, and I was definitely close:
The problem was that Harting’s presence made the discus a marquee event, and in order to give the folks watching at home a great view…
…they totally blocked mine.
See that giant camera pointed at the stands? That was there to film the reaction of the coaches throughout the competition.
It is probably good that they did not point that camera at me, because while I do not speak German, I do know a universal hand signal that would have expressed my feelings precisely.
Ah well, it was still fun to be that close.
Shortly before they opened the ring for warmups, it began to rain.
The Zurich ring has a good reputation. In New York, Harting told me he really likes throwing at Letzigrund, and Sondra Perkovic has said the same thing.
But there was something about the combination of the misting rain and the cool temperature that made the surface almost unmanageable.
Harting actually fell down performing an imitation.
And I don’t care how confident you are, that has got to shake you up a bit.
Throughout the competition, Harting took frequent strolls across the track to check in with Torsten.
Most of the competitors did the same. Here is Martin Wierig conversing with his coach, world record holder Jurgen Schult:
Here is Robert Urbanek with his coach:
Malachowski had several animated conversations with the Olympic shot champion, Tomasz Majewski.
Malachowski had told me that he and Majewski were best friends, and they acted like it. I do not speak Polish, but based on their gestures and facial expressions it seemed like their interactions went something like this:
“Throw farther, you idiot!”
“I can’t! The ring is a mess!”
“I don’t care! Just find a way!”
That photo above was taken after the competition though, and you can see that Majewski was genuinely pained when his friend was unable to defend his title.
Harting opened with 63.94m, followed by a foul when the discus slipped out of his hand, followed by one of those throws that he always seems to come up with: 66.07m in round three.
He passed in round four, hoping that the rain might let up a bit and let him extend his lead…
…then fouled both of his final attempts. On his sixth throw, his right foot landed on the rubberized surface surrounding the ring and I thought he was going to do the splits.
Kanter, who had spent time between throws performing imitations on the track right in front of me…
…finished second with a 64.75m toss, followed by a very happy Robert Urbanik…
…whose second round toss of 63.81m held up for the bronze.
You will notice that Harting is shirtless here, and that he is surrounded by a bunch of photographers.
After his final throw, the whole stadium was ready to see him rip his shirt off–his usual mode of celebration following a big win.
Harting, though, decided to have some fun with those expectations and performed a couple of fake shirt rips…
…before peeling it off and pretending to take a nap on the track.
His was not the only ecstatic celebration of the night, as French decathlete Florian Geffrouais seemed at one point about to jump on me:
One last observation regarding the men’s discus. The Germans are huge! Harting is a big man. Wierig is bigger. Fellow finalist Daniel Jasinski is even bigger. And Jasinski’s coach is the biggest dude I’ve ever seen!
Do you see Majewski there talking to Malachowski? The guy in the red jacket next to Tomasz is Jasinski’s coach, and he…is…bigger…than…Majewski! Bet he doesn’t have any trouble getting his athletes to listen to him.
So, a couple of days later, Saturday morning to be exact, I headed back to the Hilton for another German press conference. This one mainly concerned the women’s hammer, which I will post about later, but afterwards I walked out into the lobby and who should meander by but Torsten Schmidt.
The poor guy must have wondered what he had to do to make it through the lobby without some idiot American jumping out from behind a potted plant.
But we had another really nice conversation! He said that prior to the competition the discus throwers had been told three times in the holding area that they would be taken to the ring in “10 minutes.” Somehow, ten minutes stretched into an hour and then nearly two hours before they were actually brought out for warmups.
Then, as mentioned above, it was very difficult to find comfort with the throwing surface.
Most of the throwers also quickly gave up trying to perform imitations between attempts due to the slickness of the rubberized surface around the cage. That is why Kanter came over to the track to work on his steps, apparently finding a dry patch just in front of the stands.
It all added up to a potential disaster for Harting,the prohibitive favorite, and for Torsten who must have felt the weight of expectations as well.
One thing that I was struck by throughout my week in Zurich was how much it meant for these athletes to medal at this meet. Obviously, the Olympics and World Championships are a bigger deal, but based on the reactions of the winners and losers, I’d say not by much.
I got the sense, especially from the Germans, that they felt great pride in representing their country. Each time I passed through the Hilton lobby, I noticed several German athletes watching the live feed from the stadium and cheering loudly when their compatriots performed well.
So it could not have been easy for Torsten to have watched Harting bite the dust during an imitation and then struggle mightily to find a semblance of rhythm.
“So,” I finally asked, “what did you say to help get him through it?”
“We decided that he needed to keep more bend in his knees so he could keep his balance. Fortunately, that was enough.”
Just then, Harting showed up. He looked at Torsten and then at me and then his eyes widened and he exclaimed, “You again!”
I held out my hand.
“Hello, Robert. Dan McQuaid. Congratulations on your victory!”
As we shook, he looked again at Torsten and said, “This guy is always hanging around asking questions!”
“Yes,” I replied. “Your coach is telling me all of your secrets.”
“Secrets?” he shot back. “There is no such thing as secrets!”
“Secrets,” he continued, tapping a long finger against his temple, “are only doubts!”
And with that he turned and strode confidently away looking fit and ready to storm the walls of Troy.
In ancient Greece, Olympic champions were feted with banquets and parades, immortalized in bronze and marble.
In modern New York, they are largely ignored aside from the occasional bystander who asks, “Do you play basketball?”
Such is the fate of Valerie Adams, two-time Olympic shot put champion, arguably the greatest putter in history but perhaps born 2,500 years too late.
Val came into the Adidas Grand Prix meet in New York City last weekend looking for her 50th consecutive win. Hoping to derail the Adams Express was a field that featured Michelle Carter (who broke the American record last year with toss of 20.24m) and Yevgeniya Kolodko (the London silver medalist and owner of a 20.48m PB).
I was stoked to get a look at Kolodko and her excellent glide technique, and though I was rooting for Val to get number 50, I hoped that Carter and Kolodko would push her to extend her season best of 20.46m.
Alas, t’was not to be. In spite of perfect weather that had helped produce meet records in each of the two previous throwing events–Robert Harting’s 68.24m in the discus and Linda Stahl’s 67.32m in the javelin–and a raucous crowd that cheered Bohdan Bondarenko and Mutaz Essa Barshim through the greatest high jump dual in history, none of the women putters could get it going.
Carter opened with a respectable 19.51m, but that turned out to be her only throw over 19.00m. Kolodko had nothing. I could tell she was in trouble during warmups when she took about a million throws, none of which looked sharp, and she fared even worse during the competition with a 17.25m sandwiched by two fouls. I have to think she was injured, but I didn’t get a chance to ask her as she packed up and left while the top six took their final three throws.
Meanwhile, the Carter/Adams dual played out as more weird than dramatic. Val’s best in the first three rounds was 19.31m, but with the champ on the ropes and vulnerable to an upset, Carter followed her 19.51m with an uninspired-looking 18.57m and 18.39m.
It must have been a strange feeling for Val not to be the final thrower after the re-ordering, and she quickly set things right with a 19.52m to take the lead. But even after extending that lead with a fifth-round 19.68m, you could tell she was not herself. After each attempt, she looked for advice from a gentleman watching from across the track. Val is coached by two very large Swiss fellows–Werner Gunthor and Jean-Piere Egger–and this man was neither Swiss nor large, so I’m not sure who he was but the advice he shouted to her (“Put your whole body behind it! Get it going on this one!”) was heartfelt and kind of sweet. The sort of advice one might expect to hear shouted by a parent at a middle-school track meet.
After the competition, I had a nice chat with Val that you can view here:
As always, she was humble and upbeat, and afterwards she strode off looking like a champion prize-fighter from back in the day, a bit weary but ready to move on to the next town and flatten the next challenger.
Forgive me for one minute, but I feel the need to switch to Negative Nancy mode. As I was writing this article and reflecting back on what, by any measurement (5 meet records, 5 world-leading performances) was a fantastic track meet I realized that there was one aspect of it that bothered me.
On this sun-kissed day at Icahn Stadium, the shot put ran concurrently with (and right next to) that magnificent high jump competition. As the bar was raised closer and closer to a world-record height, the attention of the crowd became completely focused on that event. By the time Bondarenko and Barshim started taking attempts at 2.46m (the world record is 2.45) I’m pretty sure that myself, my friend Peter, and the guy shouting encouragement to Val were the only people in the stadium paying attention to the shot put.
But that’s as it should be. Witnessing a world record is a big, honking deal.
What bothers me is that Valerie Adams, arguably the best ever at her event, will never be involved in a competition like that. The world record in the women’s shot (Natalia Lisovskaya, 22.63m, set in 1987)is so far out there (Val’s PB is 21.24m) and so obviously the result of PEDs that nobody in this age of random drug testing is ever going to beat it.
And that sucks, for Val because it unfairly diminishes her accomplishments, and for shot put fans because it deprives us of the chance to experience a moment in the shot equal to the moment when Bondarenko or Barshim began their approach to the bar and an entire stadium held its collective breath.
Okay. Just had to get that off my chest.
After the meet, my very patient wife, my friend Peter, and I had a fantastic dinner at an Italian place in midtown and then stopped by the athletes’ hotel to have a drink in the lounge overlooking the lobby. Several beers later, we spotted Val and a couple of friends just back from dinner themselves. I grabbed Peter and dragged him down to meet her, my wife trailing us with her cellphone at the ready. I’m not sure exactly what we said to her, nor can I guarantee that anything we said made much sense, but she listened to us patiently and agreed to pose for a picture.
That’s no basketball player, folks. That’s the best shot putter ever.
Do you ever fantasize about things you’d like to have a reason to say at some point in your life?
I’m a fifty-year-old guy, so tops on my list are statements like…
“For god’s sake, I wish Angelina Jolie would stop sexting me!”
Or…
“Good news, honey! The doctor says I actually need to gain weight!”
I’m also a throws fan who loves the discus and in particular the way the Germans throw the discus so also high on my list would be something along the lines of…
“I’m going to watch discus film with Robert Harting.”
And last Saturday, I actually got to say that. Here’s how it happened:
Anyone who knows me knows that the one really, really smart thing I’ve done in my life was to marry the Most Patient Woman in the World. This woman knows how much I love the throws, so last weekend she accompanied me on a trip to cover the Adidas Grand Prix Diamond League Meeting in New York. Due to the demands of television, the men’s discus competition (featuring most of the guys who made the final in last year’s World Championships) was the first event of the day, and I had a primo view of the competition.
Standing next to me throughout was a woman named Vera, the manager of the German throwing contingent competing that day. It was fun watching the meet with her as she fretted over the wind (it seemed to constantly change directions), beamed when her throwers performed well (Harting and javelin thrower Linda Stahl both set meet records), suffered when they did not (Martin Wierig did not advance past the first three throws), and made the occasional tart comment (when I noted the hugeness of one of the competitors she replied, “And yet, his head is so small”).
A bonus of watching the competition alongside Vera was that as the discus ended and the women’s javelin began, Martin Wierig came over and sat by her. I knew he was bummed about his performance, but a friend of mine is a big fan of Martin’s so I just had to get a picture. I asked as nicely as one should when approaching a 6’6″ man in a lousy mood, and he graciously complied.
The dude visible over Martin’s left shoulder is the Australian thrower Benn Harradine, on his way over to watch teammate Kathyrn Mitchell compete in the jav.
Harradine, it turns out, is a really nice guy and a lot of fun to talk to. You can find part of our conversation here:
While Harradine and I were chatting, along came Robert Harting. The next thing I know, the three of us are standing along a fence watching the jav and shooting the breeze.
Harting, though more reserved than Harradine, is also a nice guy and a lot more thoughtful than one might think if one’s only impression of him was formed while watching video of him tear his shirt off after winning the World Championships and Olympics.
Here are vids of two conversations I had with him:
He actually did remove his shirt while watching the jav, as did Harradine and Ehsan Hadadi who came over as well. But there was nothing celebratory in the gesture. All three were simply trying to stay cool. I was tempted to join them in going shirtless but didn’t want to intimidate anyone.
Anyway, at one point Harting began telling Harradine that in spite of throwing 68 meters, he felt like his technique was off. “I need to get pictures from the side,” he said.
Remarkably, my friend Peter Trofimuk was also attending the meet and had filmed the discus competition from the grandstand located across the track from the side of the cage. Just the view that Harting wanted to see. I immediately walked over to the grandstand and reached up to Peter. In response to his quizzical look, I uttered those immortal words. “I am going to watch video with Robert Harting.”
I felt terrible that Peter, as big a throws fanatic as I am, had to sit in the stands and watch me watch video with Harting, but I got over it pretty quickly. Here is Peter, expressing his frustration at dinner later that evening:
Unfortunately, the viewer on the video camera was small and the midday sun was large, so Harting could not see his throws very well. After a minute, he handed the camera back to me and asked if I could post them on youtube and send him the link.
I agreed, and did my best to hide my disappointment. I have watched video of Harting’s throws approximately twelve million times, but to do it with him standing there providing commentary? Holy guacamole.
It was still a great day at a great track meet. More on that later.
An international airport is not a place normally associated with solitude, but there I was sitting in the darkened expanse of the waiting room in Zurich terminal number one at 5:30 on a Saturday morning feeling like I was the only person on the planet. Which I didn’t mind. Just a few hours earlier, my brother Mike, our friend Anna Swisher, Anna’s mother, and I were wedged into the standing room section along the north curve at Zurich’s Stadion Letzigrund joining the raucous crowd in urging the world’s best track and field athletes to run fast, jump high, and throw far in spite of a drenching rain occasionally punctuated by the flash of lightning. A soggy journey back to our hotel, followed by a late night of packing and a 4:00AM wake-up call (necessitated by a 7:00 AM flight to Manchester), left me feeling somewhat less than chipper as I slouched into a plastic seat in the waiting area and buried my nose in a Napoleon biography. Reading about the Grand Army of the Republic slogging west from Moscow with swarms of Cossacks nipping at their heels helped me to forget about my own fatigue and rendered me oblivious to the fact that the terminal was slowly coming to life. By the time I looked up from my book, there were dozens of passengers milling about and the shops lining the terminal were beginning to open their doors. A few feet in front of me, a very tall, broad-shouldered man dressed in jeans and a black t-shirt braced himself against a railing while casually stretching his legs. I couldn’t see his face, but his unusual size (my throwers would call someone with his build “gi-normous”) made me wonder whether he was a thrower from last night’s meet.
Speaking of last night’s meet, it appeared beforehand to possess all the necessary ingredients for a classic discus competition. The field was loaded with top throwers still in peak form after competing two weeks earlier at the World Championships in Helsinki. Foremost among them was the victor in Helsinki (and two-time Olympic champion) Virgilius Alekna, who entered the competition with a chiseled six-foot-eight inch frame and a habit of launching 70 meter throws. The big Lithuanian had pretty much owned his event since the summer of 2000 when I had the pleasure of watching him deposit four of six throws past the 70 meter line in that year’s edition of the Zurich Weltklasse. In the intervening years, the only man to defeat him in a major competition and not run afoul of the folks in the white lab coats was Lars Reidel at Edmonton in 2001. Fit, confident, and very comfortable with the ring at Letzigrund, Alekna seemed primed on this night to extend his seasonal best beyond the 70.67m he’d posted a month earlier in Madrid.
This is not to imply that the rest of the competitors were content to duke it out for second place. Indeed, Gerd Kanter, the fine Estonian thrower who broke the 70-meter barrier once himself earlier this year, had Alekna on the ropes until the final round at Helsinki. Would this be the night he’d finish the job? Also in the field was Franz Kruger, a crowd favorite in Zurich who’d handed Alekna his only defeat of the year at a meet in Talinnjust after the World Championships. Aside from these two, the field was loaded with former World and Olympic medalists including the aforementioned Lars Reidel, Athens second-placer Zoltan Kovago, Athens third-placer Alex Tammert, and the shaggy-haired Michael Mollenbeck, third in Helsinki and a man who seemingly never met a hair style that he would not try. These, then, were the challengers who hoped to make Alekna sweat in his attempt to snag a third Weltklasse Zurich title.
Coincidentally, a sweaty Alekna just happened to occupy the top spot on Anna Swisher’s wish list for the upcoming holiday season. A recent graduate of Williams College and herself a thrower, Anna arrived in Zurich harboring a mad hot crush on the Lithuanian studmuffin. Her goal for the 2005 Weltklasse was simple: find Alekna and get his autograph. If a marriage proposal followed, so much the better.
This aspiration (at least the autograph part of it) was not-so-far-fetched. The athletes’ hotel is just a few blocks from Letzigrund, and it is not uncommon to see them walking to or from the stadium. In fact, as Mike, Anna, and I entered Letzigrund, we ran into Franz Kruger making his way towards the athletes’ check-in area. We did not trouble him for an autograph, but Anna was encouraged by the thought that a certain Lithuanian dreamboat might be in the vicinity as well. Unfortunately, we could not afford to spend any time staking out the entrance if we wanted to secure a spot in the north stands with a clear view of the discus ring. The Zurich Weltklasse pretty much sells out every year, and the general admission area overlooking the discus cage fills up quickly. Owing to necessity then, we temporarily suspended the “hunt for Alekna” portion of our mission and managed to grab a nice spot not too far from the cage and just across the track from an open area where the throwers tend to congregate between attempts. Not a bad perch, as it turned out, for a passionate woman armed with a telephoto lens. From there, Anna and I anxiously awaited the beginning of the discus warm-ups while Mike (himself armed with a telephoto lens and a positively Japanese-like passion for using it) contentedly snapped photos of the steeplechase water hazard.
Unfortunately, the steeplechasers would not be the only ones dealing with water and its hazards on this night. A few minutes prior to the discus warm-up, a steady drizzle began to fall and continued as Alekna and the other throwers were escorted to the cage. As the group began their warm-up tosses, it quickly became clear that the wet ring was forcing everyone to move cautiously. Further complicating matters was a fairly steady breeze blowing in along the right foul line. Normally a boon to right-handed throwers, the wind seemed to make it harder to get a proper flight on the disc, resulting in many weak-looking “pop-up” type throws-not the sort of thing one might expect from the world’s best.
After a few rounds, the warm-ups were halted for the “Introduction of Champions,” during which any recently crowned World Champion competing in the Weltklasse was paraded on the infield to the accompaniment of some sort of regal sounding techno music. After the introductions, the champions scattered to toss t-shirts into different sections of the stands. Alekna trotted right over to us and tossed several t-shirts into our section but just out of our reach. It is testament to Anna’s genteel upbringing that she refrained from a.) hopping the railing and tackling Alekna, or b.) drawing blood in an effort to snag a shirt, especially when she realized that the world’s most hunkalicious Lithuanian had autographed them!
All eleven throwers were given a couple more warm-up tosses, and then with the rain still falling, Mario Pestana opened the competition with a very decent (considering the conditions) 64.90m. This seemed to set the tone for the night. Yes, the ring was wet. Yes, it was hard to get a good grip on the disc. Yes, Anna was giving everyone but Alekna the evil eye. But these guys were professionals, and regardless of those distractions they were going to fight to get off some good throws. This point was made abundantly clear when Franz Kruger fired a season best 67.30m on his first attempt. This got me jacked up, as Franz is a class act and a lot of fun to watch. The 2000 Weltklasse, the first that I attended, was something of a coming out party for the big South African who launched a couple of PR’s that night and endeared himself to everyone in the north stands by playing to the crowd before and after each throw. Two weeks later, he collected the bronze in Sydney and seemed to be on the brink of a fantastic career. After a stellar 2001 campaign, however, he slipped a bit and became just another member of the pack of throwers who struggled to stay within five meters of Alekna week in and week out. I often wondered if he was struggling with injuries during that span. Or if getting married had crushed his spirit the way it has with so many other men over the eons (just kidding, dear). What a pleasant surprise then, to see him suddenly conjure the mojo of Bachelor Franz and throw down the gauntlet on a night where 67.30m looked to have a real chance of holding up for the win.
Things continued to look good for Franz for the rest of the first and most of the second round. Even though the rain stopped for a few minutes, nobody, not even Alekna, could seem to get comfortable. Of the first twenty-one throws, six were fouls and nine others were less than 64 meters. Unfortunately for Franz, on the twenty-second throw Alekna demonstrated that he did not need to be comfortable to throw far, launching one 68.00m while nearly falling down during his reverse. This pleased Anna quite a bit, but not nearly so much as when the large Lithuanian stripped off his wet shirt prior to round three. Aside from Alekna showing off his pecs (an event that Anna was able to capture via her telephoto lens) the highlights of that round were Franz backing up his 67.30m with a solid-looking 66.68m, and Zoltan Kovago (he of the crazy mad right-leg action) launching a season best 66.00m.
A poignant but largely unnoticed moment occurred during the re-shuffling of the order, as Lars Reidel, certainly one of the all-time greats and a six-time winner of the Weltklasse during the 1990’s, packed up and left the field after failing to qualify for the final three throws. How odd to see this former ubermensch almost sneak away from a stadium where he had been the object of much adoration over the years. Too bad he didn’t announce his retirement during the “Parade of Champions” to give the crowd a chance to go nuts over him one last time. I guess when you’ve reached the heights that Lars, has it must be hard to know when and how to bow out gracefully, but going three and out in Athens, Helsinki, and now Zurich is probably a sign that it’s time to go. Perhaps Mother Nature was as sad as I was to see Lars go, because the rain really began pelting down prior to round four. Predictably, this led to lots more fouls eleven over the final three rounds. Unpredictably, Kanter nailed 67.92m on his fourth throw to bump Franz to third, and Mario Pestano pitched a season best 66.57m on his final attempt. Neither Alekna nor Franz was able to improve, so the final ranking went Alekna (68.00m), Kanter (67.92m), Kruger (67.30m). A fun competition, but probably disappointing to these athletes who clearly were in shape to throw far had the conditions been better.
One final note regarding the disc. Both Ian Waltz (seventh with 63.08m) and Jarred Rome (eighth with 62.68m) demonstrated once again that they belong among the world’s elite. They both look big, strong and technically sound, and I predict they’ll be major players throughout the current Olympic cycle.
The completion of the discus put Anna in a slight bind. True throws fan that she is, she wanted to remain in the stands to watch the javelin competition (eventually won in a downpour by the young Finnish thrower Tero Pitkamaki with a fine throw of 88.71m) but longed to stake out the exit to catch Alekna on his way out. Anna’s mom (a charming woman born and raised in Austria who enjoys escorting Anna on jaunts over the Pond) settled the dilemma by noticing that the program promised a meet and greet with the night’s champions after the final event. Anna decided to pin her hopes on the chance that Alekna would stick around. Mike and I both had early flights to catch the next morning, so we left the stadium just before the meet ended, and were busy packing when Anna arrived with the sad news that Alekna did not stay for the autograph session. She faced this unfortunate development with her usual pluck and optimistic demeanor, wishing Mike and I a pleasant journey as we finally hit the hay around 1:00 AM. And thus our adventure came to an end.
Almost.
The next morning, fairly numb from lack of sleep and distracted by a sort of generalized ache to see my wife and daughter again after ten days away from home, it took me several moments to realize that the man standing before me in the waiting lounge of Zurich Terminal One was none other than Virgilius Alekna.
So Anna was to get her autograph after all, though not in the way she’d expected. He was extremely gracious as he signed, nodding politely as I pantomimed “rain” and told him how great I thought he was. My best guess is that he did not get any English in school as Lithuania was still part of the Soviet Bloc in those days, and he certainly did not try to speak any to me. But I didn’t care. I took the autograph, thanked him profusely and went back to my Napoleon book, wishing I knew how to use a pay phone in Europe so that I could call Anna and wake her up with the good news.
But a few minutes later, the news got even better.
Nose buried in my book, I felt a tap on my shoulder and looked up to find Alekna standing over me. Without a word, he handed me a postcard-sized autographed photo of himself on the awards stand at Athens, nodded politely, smiled and walked away. Now I was really stoked. How cool to find out that someone you admire is a genuinely nice guy. I only hoped that Anna’s seizure upon receiving the photo would be a small one.
At that point, it was time to head to the gate to catch a bus to the tarmac where I’d board the flight to Manchester. Within ten minutes I was standing on the bus, still shaking a bit from the excitement of having met the Olympic champion. All of a sudden, I looked around and guess who was standing on the same bus just a few feet away from me? Yep. Now I started to feel a bit self-conscious, in no small part because of the fruity bag I was using as a carry-on. Earlier in the week, Mike and I had spent a couple of days touring Salzburg, and I felt like I needed about five hands to carry all the stuff I was trying to schlep around. My solution was to buy a big canvas sack decorated with brightly colored images of fruit that would a.) hold all my stuff and b.) make a great beach bag for my daughter when I got it home. I knew it looked silly for a grown man to be carrying a bag like that. I even joked with the shop owner when I bought it that people would think I was “less than manly.” And indeed, a group of teenagers kept snickering at Mike and I when we sat down for lunch that afternoon. But I didn’t care. Until, of course, I suddenly found myself holding it in the presence of the Olympic discus champion.
Luckily, it was a short bus ride, and in a few minutes I was standing in the aisle of the plane trying to find my seat. The aisle was blocked by a lot of people still stowing their carry-ons, so I craned my neck to see around them and began counting rows. My seat was 12A. Take a wild guess who was already sitting in 12B.
Now I started to feel a bit panicky. As I mentioned earlier, Alekna is an enormous man who as far as I can tell does not speak English. Were I to squeeze into that seat next to him, we’d be smashed up against each other for two hours with absolutely no way to communicate. And who could blame him for suspecting that I was some sort of fruity-bag-carrying stalker? I mean, what are the odds that the only guy in the whole airport who recognized him would just happen to end up sitting next to him on the plane? And what could I say to assuage his fears? “Me no stalk you. This coincidence. Anna stalk you. She have picture of you no shirt. She want marry you.”
Nice guy that Alekna is, he started to get up to let me have the seat when he saw me staring at it, but no way was I going to sit there. “Thanks again for the autographs,” I said and scrambled down the aisle clutching my fruity bag until I found an empty seat.
by Dan McQuaid
this article originally appeared in the Long & Strong Throwers Journal in October 2005
Anyone who has read my stuff and assumes that I only care about the shot and disc is in for a big surprise because I covered the heck out of the women’s hammer at this meet.
There are two reasons why.
One, the timing fell just right. At these types of meets, the throwing events often overlap, and at Drake if one of the overlapping events is the shot put, you are forced to choose because all of the other throws take place outside the stadium. No worries on this very sunny Saturday afternoon, though, because there was plenty of time after the women’s shot to meander over to the hammer cage without missing anything.
Two, I had Trofimuk–a straight up hammer aficionado–with me, and he assured me that this would be a competition well worth watching.
Holy crap, was he right.
The hammer cage at Drake (it also serves as a discus cage when people are throwing discs from it) is set up in a fan-friendly way. You can probably tell from this photo of Britney Henry warming up that…
…I am looking down at her from above the cage. That’s because the hammer cage is nestled into the corner of a huge athletic field that is rimmed with a grassy hill. Spectators, therefore, can flop on the grass and enjoy a sweet view of the the thrower and the landing area. Here is Art Venegas talking with Kristin Smith on that hill.
Unfortunately, the layout at Drake turned out to have one design flaw. On the other side of that fence you see with all the signs on it is an alley, which leads farther down to a parking lot. Have you ever seen those giant nets that they sometimes erect at driving ranges to keep the golf balls from flying onto a road or into a subdivision? Well, the folks at Drake have placed several of those nets along the left foul line to make sure that an errant throw will not make it to that alley or parking lot. Amazingly, in spite of those precautions, the left-handed thrower Jessica Cosby Toruga launched a warm-up throw out of the cage, over the giant safety nets, and into (I think) the parking lot. I say “I think” because you can’t see exactly what’s on the other side of those nets, but it sounded like the hammer skidded across the alley and thunked against a car.
Art, who coaches Cosby Toruga, must have sensed right away that something like that could very well shake a thrower’s confidence because he immediately called out, “I’ll pay for the car!” to try to lighten things up a bit. Unfortunately for Cosby Toruga, this would not be the only confidence-killing challenge she would face on this day.
Here are a few more photos I took during warmups…
Amber Campbell:
Jeneva McCall:
Cosby Toruga:
Gwen Berry and Jeneva McCall:
Ashley Harbin, Chelsea Cassulo, and Brittany Smith
Once the competition began, Amanda Bingson dropped the first bomb.
But Bingson wasn’t nearly finished. I was at Drake last year for the NCAA meet, which Bingson had a serious chance to win. Unfortunately, she had a lousy day and finished third after fouling four of her six throws. She clearly was not haunted by those memories, though, as in round two she stepped in and set a new American record.
One might reasonably think that all this excitement would tire a person and make it unlikely that they might shatter their freshly-set American record on their next throw. Au contraire, mon frere.
Even world class hammer throwers have their limits, though, and Bingson went 72.41m, foul, foul, in the final. She did, however, punctuate her victory with a very impressive series of back flips after her sixth throw.
I had a long talk with her afterwards, which you can view in it’s entirety if you go first to Macthrow.com and then to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVmrJtfuzVk as the interview is divided into two parts.
McCall, suffering from an abdominal strain that she had incurred competing in the shot, could not better her 74.00m opener in rounds two and three, and then passed all of her throws in the final.
There were, however, some fine throws in the late rounds.
Here is Britney Henry going 69.57 in round four to capture fifth place:
Here is Amber Campbell reaching 72.58m in round five to finish fourth:
And we’ll finish with what might have been the most remarkable throw of the day. I mentioned earlier that Jessica Cosby Toruga launched one out of the facility during warmups. It would be perfectly understandable if she had become a bit tentative after that. To her credit, though, she maintained her focus and nailed a round-two throw of 72.47m that had her right in the thick of things going into the final.
She began the final with a fourth-round 71.09m, but on her fifth throw she lost her balance in the middle of the ring and hit the concrete hard. My first thought, when she went down, was that they had better get an ambulance over here quickly because there was no doubt she was badly injured. It was like seeing someone come crashing down on the sidewalk after jumping from a fourth floor window.
Shockingly, though, after a few tense and weirdly quiet minutes Cosby Toruga got up and walked out of the cage under her own power. Even more shockingly, when her name was called in the sixth round, she was ready to take her throw. Most shocking of all,? It turned out to be her best throw of the day.
As Joe Gargery, my favorite character from my favorite novel (Dickens’s Great Expectations) would say, “Astonishing!”
So, that was the women’s hammer competition. I’ve got the second flight of prelims and much of the final on my youtube page:
It is pretty exciting that the US is sending legit medal contenders to Moscow in this event, especially considering the fact that very few kids are exposed to the hammer until they reach college. Honestly, though, I don’t see how that is ever going to change. As evidenced here at Drake, there are safety concerns with the hammer that you just don’t have with the shot and disc and it is hard to imagine high schools being willing to take on those risks. I guess we just have to hope that Fate keeps guiding the right athletes–like Bingson and McCall–to the right college programs.
by Dan McQuaid
this article originally appeared on the Illinois Track & Cross Country Coaches Association website on July 3, 2013
