Chase Jackson and Ryan Crouser at the World Indoor Championships (© Getty Images)
Women’s shot put
Timetable | 2024 world list | world all-time list | world rankings
The women’s shot put at the World Athletics Indoor Championships Glasgow 24 will bring together three women who have surpassed 20 metres this year.
There’s two-time world champion Chase Jackson (nee Ealey) of the USA; Commonwealth champion and world silver medallist Sarah Mitton of Canada who is undefeated this year; and European champion Jessica Schilder of the Netherlands who recently threw a world-leading outright PB of 20.31m.
As the double world champion, Jackson will perhaps start as the slight favourite. A proven championship performer, she has a habit of producing her best throws when it matters most and has thrown comfortably beyond 20 metres at her past three global championships. She also has the best outright PB of any entrant, with her 20.76m heave from the Wanda Diamond League Final five months ago.
Schilder, meanwhile, now boasts the best indoor PB of the field, thanks to her recent world-leading mark. She made her breakthrough in 2022, earning world bronze indoors and outdoors, as well as European gold. She missed out on the podium at last year’s World Championships, but has clearly started 2024 full of drive and ambition.
So too has Mitton, who has won all five of her competitions so far this year, throwing beyond 19.50m in all but one of those outings. In her final competition before heading to Glasgow, she threw a Canadian indoor record of 20.08m – the same distance she threw to take world silver in Budapest last year. Another 20-metre throw in Glasgow could be enough to make it on to the podium.
But there are more than just three medal contenders.
Germany’s Yemisi Ogunleye added 1.30m to her PB throughout the course of last year, producing her best at the World Championships. And this year she has picked up where she left off; in her first competition of 2024, she threw an outright PB of 19.57m, then backed that up with 19.42m one week later.
USA’s Maggie Ewen has made four global championship finals. A 20.45m performer at her best, it is surely just a matter of time before the all-round throws talent makes it on to a major podium.
Jamaican record-holder Danniel Thomas-Dodd earned world indoor silver in 2018 and followed it with world silver outdoors in 2019. She produced the three best marks of her career – topped by 19.77m – in 2023, so is very much still a big contender.
New Zealand’s Maddison-Lee Wesche has produced her last two PBs in World Championships finals, placing seventh in both Oregon and Budapest. This will be her first ever indoor competition, but the 2018 world U20 champion has the ability to compete for medals.
Others in with a shout include Portugal’s Jessica Inchude and Jorinde van Klinken of the Netherlands.
Men’s shot put
Timetable | 2024 world list | world all-time list | world rankings
USA’s Ryan Crouser, the most dominant shot putter in history, will head to the World Athletics Indoor Championships in pursuit of his first world indoor title.
He knows, though, that despite his dominance, he cannot take anything for granted.
Two years ago in Belgrade, he was surprisingly beaten to the title by Darlan Romani. Crouser opened his series with a championship record of 22.44m, but Romani bettered that in round three with 22.53m.
But Crouser – a double world and Olympic champion – has every reason to feel confident as he heads to Glasgow. In his one and only competition of the year so far, he won the US indoor title with an almighty 22.80m, just two centimetres shy of the world indoor record he set in 2021.
And while Romani arrives in Glasgow with a relatively modest season’s best of 21.10m, he is one of 10 men in the field with a PB beyond 22 metres – so Crouser can’t afford an off day.
Leonard Fabbri took silver behind Crouser at last year’s World Championships in Budapest, and the Italian has started 2024 in great form, throwing a national indoor record of 22.37m.
Two other men in the field have thrown comfortably beyond 22 metres this year: Tom Walsh of New Zealand and Rajindra Campbell of Jamaica.
Walsh is a two-time world indoor champion and has one of the farthest throws of all time with his 22.90m heave from the 2019 World Championships. He was also recently confirmed the winner of the World Indoor Tour.
Campbell, meanwhile, is rounding into form at the right time, having thrown a Jamaican indoor record of 22.16m to win at the World Indoor Tour meeting in Madrid just last weekend.
Fabbri’s teammate Zane Weir excels indoors, having won the European indoor title last year. He has an outdoor best of 22.44m, while his season’s best is a solid 21.84m.
Tomas Stanek of the Czech Republic has featured on the podium at the past four editions of the European Indoors, topped by his gold in 2021. He also earned world indoor bronze in 2018.
Jacko Gill has reached the final of the past seven outdoor global championships and continues to improve year on year, setting a lifetime best of 22.12m in 2023. The New Zealander, who won three world age-group titles in his teens, would dearly love to earn his first senior global medal.
Area champions Filip Mihaljevic and Chukwuebuka Enekwechi may not be members of the 22-metre club, but they are still formidable opponents. Mihaljevic, the European champion, placed fourth at the 2022 World Indoor Championships with 21.83m. Enekwechi, the two-time African champion, recently set an African indoor record of 21.63m.
Jon Mulkeen for World Athletics
