When Ryan Crouser took the field for his first attempt in the men’s shot put on Friday, it ended up being all he needed to qualify for the finals at the World Athletics Championships in Eugene.
The attempt, which cleared a distance of 73 feet, 1¼ inches, easily cleared the qualifying benchmark. Now Crouser, the owner of multiple NCAA championships, Olympic gold medals and both the indoor and outdoor men’s shot put world records, will seek to add an elusive world championship to his list of achievements.
Born in Portland and a former star at Barlow High School in Gresham, Crouser has put himself in the conversation as one of the sport’s greatest of all time.
He’ll be joined in the finals by fellow American Joe Kovacs, who qualified with a distance of 70 feet, 6½ inches to finish in second place. Kovacs defeated Crouser at the 2019 world championships by a single centimeter.
The men’s shot put final is scheduled for Sunday evening.
— Luke Norton; lnorton@oregonian.com
