Four women have already surpassed 20 metres in the shot put this year and three of them clash at the World Athletics Indoor Championships Nanjing 25.

Joining that world-topping trio is home star Gong Lijiao, the Olympic and two-time world gold medallist, meaning the spotlight will be firmly on the circle when the contest takes place on Friday evening. 

Dutch record-holder Jessica Schilder tops the entry list with the world-leading national record of 20.69m she achieved to win on home soil at the European Indoor Championships earlier this month.

That was the best indoor throw in the world since 2013, but only just. One month earlier, at the World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold meeting in Karlsruhe, Sarah Mitton broke the North American indoor record and equalled her own outright Canadian record by throwing 20.68m.

Prior to those performances, the farthest indoor women’s throw had been the 20.98m launched by Valerie Adams in 2013. The following year Adams claimed her fourth consecutive world indoor title and Mitton will be looking to also become a back-to-back winner when she takes to the circle inside Nanjing’s Cube on the opening day of the championships.

After finishing fourth at the 2022 World Championships and second at the 2023 edition, the Canadian 28-year-old gained the first global gold of her career in Glasgow when she threw 20.22m to win by three centimetres ahead of Yemisi Ogunleye.

Germany’s Ogunleye, the Olympic champion, doesn’t compete in Nanjing having decided to end her season following her European indoor silver medal win in Apeldoorn, but Mitton will face some strong opposition from the winner in the Dutch city – Schilder – as well as USA’s Chase Jackson, the third athlete among the entries to have thrown beyond 20 metres this season.

Both Schilder and Jackson are world indoor medallists, Schilder securing bronze in Belgrade in 2022 and Jackson following her silver in 2022 with bronze behind Mitton and Ogunleye in Glasgow last year. Schilder’s CV also features two European outdoor titles as well as world bronze outdoors from 2022 – a competition that was won by Jackson.

The US 30-year-old retained her world title in Budapest in 2023 and she will be looking to add another title to her tally in Nanjing. Her season’s best stands at 20.24m – a mark that added three centimetres to the national indoor record she had equalled when securing silver at the 2022 World Indoor Championships.

That performance was achieved during the World Indoor Tour meeting in Torun last month and Jackson’s consistency throughout the season led to her being crowned the overall World Indoor Tour champion following the final event of the season in Madrid. She has surpassed 20 metres in two competitions so far this year, while Schilder has achieved the feat in four contests – more than any other athlete this season.

The whole podium from the 2022 World Indoor Championships returns, as medallists Jackson and Schilder are joined by that year’s champion Auriol Dongmo of Portugal.

Dongmo threw a national record of 20.43m to win that world indoor title in Belgrade and so far this year she has thrown a best of 19.26m, which secured her European indoor bronze.

Having received a wild card entry for Nanjing, Jackson is joined by Maggie Ewen and Jessica Ramsey on the US team.

Gong has competed just once this year, the 36-year-old warming up for the global championships with a 19.04m win in Nanjing last month. As well as her Olympic and world titles won outdoors, she has two world indoor bronze medals from 2014 and 2018.

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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Win probability: 1 Chase Jackson (USA) 46.45%, 2 Sarah Mitton (CAN) 32.56%, 3 Jessica Schilder (NED) 11.65%
(This win probability is powered entirely by data and driven by AI technology. More information)

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