Olympic shot put champion Ryan Crouser produced a massive 22.91m throw to highlight an American Track League Summer Series meeting in Marietta, Georgia, on Saturday (18).

Competing for just the second time this outdoor season, Crouser illustrated solid form, opening with a world-leading 22.15m effort and improving to 22.24m in round three.

He unleashed a 22.73m throw in the fifth round before capping the night with his 22.91m bomb, one centimetre better than his previous career best set at last year's World Championships where he finished second in the finest shot put competition ever. The throw also elevates the 27-year-old American to equal-third on the all-time list.

Crouser kicked off his 2020 season at the opening meeting of this regional US series on 11 July with a 21.87m throw, also in Marietta.

Incredible performance from Olympic shot put champ @RCrouserThrows at the @americantrack meet in Marietta, GA.

He threw 22.15m, 22.24m, 22.73m.

And then he unleashed this monster on his final throw: 22.91m, to move into a tie for #3 on the world all-time list.

📹Paul Doyle pic.twitter.com/QlOQHQ2e48
— Jonathan Gault (@jgault13) July 19, 2020

Nick Ponzio, who joined the 21-metre ranks this year with 21.08m efforts in Scottsdale (28 Jun) and Marietta (11 Jul), was second with 20.15m.

Katie Nageotte topped 4.83m on her second attempt to win the pole vault, adding one centimetre to her previous outdoor best and another world-leading performance. The 2019 World Championships finalist bowed out after three misses at 4.92m.

Megan Clark was second at 4.45m.

Bol breaks Dutch 400m hurdles record

Two weeks after running a Dutch 400m hurdles record of 54.47 in the rain, 20-year-old Femke Bol was back in Arnhem on Saturday (18) – this time in better conditions – and took another chunk off her record, clocking 53.79.

Bol only took up the event last year but went on to win the European U20 title and reached the semifinals of the World Championships, setting a national U20 record of 55.32 along the way.

Despite clipping the penultimate hurdle in today’s race in Arnhem, Bol won by almost two seconds as Germany’s Jackie Bauman finished second in a PB of 55.53.

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✨ 5 3 . 7 9 ✨ National Record 🤩

A post shared by Femke (@femke_bol) on Jul 18, 2020 at 9:15am PDT

There was impressive depth once again at the latest Hokuren Distance Series, this time in the Japanese city of Chitose, and the leading performances came from some of Japan’s most exciting up-and-coming talents.

In a close finish, Ryuji Miura won the men’s 3000m steeplechase in 8:19.37, smashing the Japanese U20 record and moving to fourth on the Asian U20 all-time list. His time is also just one second shy of the senior Japanese record. Kenya’s Philemon Kiplagat Ruto was second in 8:19.60.

More records fell in the 5000m. Kenya’s Titus Wanbua won the ‘A’ race in 13:17.40 with Hyuga Endo finishing second in 13:18.99, the fastest time by a Japanese man for five years. A bit further back in sixth place, Yamato Yoshii broke the Japanese U20 record with 13:28.31.

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千歳5000mA 吉居大和(中大1) 13:28.31 U-20日本新！ #ホクレンDC

A post shared by EKIDEN NEWS (@ekiden_news) on Jul 18, 2020 at 3:09am PDT

Earlier in the evening, the men’s ‘B’ 5000m was won by Tatsuhiko Ito (13:33.97) with 17-year-old Kosuke Ishida placing third in a national high school record of 13:36.89.

World U20 champion Nozomi Tanaka won her fourth race within two weeks, finishing six seconds ahead of her nearest rival in the 3000m and stopping the clock at 8:51.49. Three days after clocking a 10,000m PB of 31:23.30, Olympics-bound marathon runner Mao Ichiyama won the 5000m in a big PB of 15:06.66.

The ‘The Bigger Friendly’ meeting in Portland, USA’s Shannon Rowbury opened her 2020 campaign with an 8:40.26 victory over 3000m. World 5000m bronze medallist Konstanze Klosterhalfen stepped down to the 1000m and recorded a PB of 2:37.05, while Nijel Amos was a comfortable winner of the 600m, running 1:15.86.

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It’s all fun and games. #TheBiggerFriendly - Big shoutout to @pdxtrack for putting on a very safe and successful meet last night! You can watch all the races from The Bigger Friendly on the Tracklandia YouTube.

A post shared by TrackTown USA (@tracktownusa) on Jul 18, 2020 at 12:15pm PDT

In the Czech city of Kladno, 400m specialist Lada Vondrova focused on some over- and under-distance work. After clocking a 100m PB of 11.86 in her first race of the day, she was back on track 90 minutes later and ran an 800m PB of 2:04.45. A few hours later she recorded a 200m PB of 23.40.

Some of Germany’s top combined events athletes were in action in Neuwied on Saturday, competing in a four-discipline ‘quadrathlon’. 2017 world silver medallist Carolin Schafer dominated the women’s competition and won with 3807 points after running 13.77 in the 100m hurdles, leaping 1.79m in the high jump, throwing 50.33m in the javelin and clocking 24.18 in the 200m. Sophie Weissenberg (3598) and Anna Maiwald (3575) batted it out for second and third.

Kai Kazmirek, the 2017 world bronze medallist, topped the men’s contest with 3393 after clocking 14.36 in the 110m hurdles, throwing 38.79m in the discus, vaulting 4.90m and running 34.05 for 300m. Mathias Brugger was just 81 points adrift of Kazmirek’s score.

Nastassia Mironchik-Ivanova jumped a world-leading 6.93m to win the long jump in Brest, Belarus, on Friday (17). European champion Elvira Herman won the 100m hurdles in 12.90 and then won the 200m in 23.37.

The women’s throws provided several highlights with Olena Dubitskaya winning the shot put (19.27m), Tatsiana Khaladovich winning the javelin (64.33m) and Anna Malyshchik taking the hammer (73.00m). Pavel Bareisha won the men’s hammer with 76.06m.

Jon Mulkeen and Bob Ramsak for World Athletics

Ryuji MIURA

Ryuji MIURA