On season’s bests, the Italian duo of Leonardo Fabbri and Zane Weir lead the entry list for the men’s shot put at the World Athletics Indoor Championships Nanjing 25. 

Fabbri, the world indoor bronze medallist from Glasgow last year, achieved his world-leading mark of 21.95m at the World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold meeting in Lievin last month, while Weir threw 21.76m to finish runner-up to Fabbri (21.85m) at the Italian Indoor Championships.

Fabbri has four of the top 10 winning marks of the season to his name, while Weir has three, but they will both be looking to rebound from their most recent competition. At the European Indoor Championships in Apeldoorn, Fabbri was unable to make the final while Weir had to settle for eighth place.

The winner on that day was Romania’s Andrei Toader and he competes in Nanjing along with the silver medallist from Apeldoorn, Sweden’s Wictor Petersson.

With world record-holder and last year’s world indoor champion Ryan Crouser opting not to compete indoors this year, the USA is represented by Adrian Piperi and Roger Steen, the former sitting fourth on the season top list with the 21.50m throw he achieved to win his national title.

Not since 2012 has there been a World Indoor Championships that didn’t feature New Zealand’s Tom Walsh on the podium. The now 33-year-old had a breakthrough on his debut in Sopot in 2014, the then 22-year-old throwing an Oceanian record of 21.26m to get bronze. Gold followed in Portland two years later and Walsh retained that title in Birmingham in 2018 before adding another bronze to his haul in Belgrade in 2022 and a silver to complete the set in Glasgow last year.

In Nanjing he seeks his sixth successive medal from what will be his first indoor competition of the year. That is not unusual for Walsh, however – 2024 was actually the first year in which he competed in any indoor competitions that were not editions of the World Indoor Championships.

The two-time Olympic bronze medallist has competed outdoors three times so far this year, his best of 21.24m achieved at the New Zealand Championships earlier this month. Motivation will also be high for Walsh as he returns to the global stage after injury disappointment at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Sustaining an adductor tear in the Olympic final, he was forced to end his season.

Other athletes who will also be hoping to peak in Nanjing include Jamaica’s Olympic bronze medallist Rajindra Campbell, Poland’s 2017 European indoor champion Konrad Bukowiecki and Nigeria’s three-time African champion Chukwuebuka Enekwechi.

Following a competition rule change approved by the World Athletics Council at its meeting in December, all 16 athletes will feature in the first three rounds of the final. The top 10 will then advance to compete in round four, which is two more athletes than the previous rules allowed, and the top eight then advance to round five. The top six, rather than the previous top eight, will compete in the sixth and final round.

Jess Whittington for World Athletics

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