.jpg) Canada’s Dylan Armstrong takes a throw in the men’s shot put qualifying round at the World Athletics Championships in Daegu, Thursday. |
By Yoon ChulDAEGU — At Daegu Stadium, the most enthusiastic response from Korean fans are in the high and the long jump events, as the fans rhythmically clap to encourage the athletes.
Today, Mitchell Watt will look to shine in the men’s long jump and hopefully collect Australia’s first gold.
Watt, who surprisingly took bronze at the previous worlds in Berlin, 2009, is now a leading contender.
At the recent Samsung Diamond League meet in Stockholm, he jumped 8.54 meters, the winning distance in Berlin by Dwight Phillips of the United States.
The defending champion came to Daegu as a wild card as his longest jump was 8.07 coming into the championships.
But Phillips showed his potential recording 8.32 in qualifying for the final, Thursday. Ngonidzashe Makusha of Zimbabwe is another name expected to contest the medal places.
Makusha leapt 8.40 meters to top the podium at the NCAA championships in June.
Korean Kim Deok-hyeon could manage to break into the top 10 if he shines on home soil. He won the gold medal in the Guangzhou Asian Games with 8.11 meters and has a personal best of 8.20. He reached the final round of 12 jumpers with 8.02 meters in the preliminary round.
In Berlin, the shortest jump among the 12 finalists was 8.01 meters.
In the men’s shot put, former hammer thrower Dylan Armstrong of Canada a title favorite.
The 30-year-old, who qualified with the second best mark of the Daegu worlds of 21.05, has the season’s best put of 22.21.
Christian Cantwell of U.S. will be looking to defend the title he won two years ago while Beijing Olympic gold medalist Tomasz Majewski of Poland will also offer stiff competition.
There are three outstanding athletes in the women’s javelin final and it is expected that they will compete for podium places.
Barbora Spotakova of Czech Republic, the 2007 world champion and reigning Olympic champion, Christina Obergfoll of Germany, Beijing Olympic bronze medalist and Maria Abakumova of Russia, silver medalist at the 2009 worlds are tipped to battle it out for the gold.
Obergfoll led the qualifying round with a throw of 68.76 meters while Spotakova and Abakumova threw 63.40 and 62.49 respectively.
Spotakova holds the world record of 72.28 meters as well as the year’s best throw of 69.45.
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