Shot put winner Chase Ealey at the World Athletics Championships Budapest 23 (© AFP / Getty Images)
It was only two years ago that Chase Ealey was in a slough of despond. Having finished fifth in the women’s shot put at the US trials, she was obliged to watch the Olympic action from afar, lamenting what might have been.
How times have changed for the 29-year-old from Springfield, Illinois, with her pigtails and her distinctive face paint.
On home soil in Oregon last year, Ealey threw her way into the history books as the first US women’s shot putter to land World Championships gold.
Thirteen months later, on the penultimate evening of action at the World Athletics Championships Budapest 23, she consolidated her place at the top of the global pile, joining the elite band of multiple world title winners in her event: Dame Valerie Adams of New Zealand, who happened to be among those watching in the National Athletics Centre; Gong Lijiao, who happened to be among the 12 competitors; plus another Chinese thrower, Huang Zhihong; and Astrid Kumbernuss of Germany.
Ealey took the lead with her opening effort, 20.35m, and never relinquished. The chase to catch Chase proved futile. Canada’s Commonwealth Games champion Sarah Mitton popped a throw of 20.08m in round five but Ealey improved to 20.43m to secure the gold with room to spare.
In a ding-dong battle for bronze, the 38-year-old Gong – winner in 2017 and 2019 – and world indoor champion Auriol Dongmo both threw 19.69m but the veteran Chinese athlete beat her Portuguese rival with a superior second best throw.
“It's even more satisfying than last year because this year I've struggled to get my technique sorted and get everything right,” Ealey reflected. “So, for it to come together at the right time is perfect.
“I've been training really well and I was really confident. I wanted to set a good early mark and set the pace. I think I did that.
“I risked this gold because I changed my technique to get better for Paris and the Olympics. That was what the change of technique was for. So hopefully in the future I will have more consistent throws like tonight.
“I started crying with my mum. I ran to her and she started crying, so I started crying - and now my face is a mess."
As the finalists were introduced to the crowd, Ealey cut a distinctive figure with her thick purple eye shadow and creative face paint. She proceeded to produce the stand out performance of the opening round, putting her shot out beyond the 20-metre mark – to 20.35m.
In doing so, the reigning champion swept into the lead, overtaking the opening throw of the competition, 19.51m by her teammate Maggie Ewen. At that stage Jamaica’s Danniel Thomas-Dodd, the Jamaican who took silver in Doha in 2019, was lying third with 19.38m – ahead of Mitton (19.17m).
Dongmo, who won her world indoor title in Belgrade last year, was down in eighth with a modest 18.79 but the 33-year-old jumped up to the runner-up spot with a second round improvement to 19.63m
Gong also moved up the order – to fifth, with 19.37m.
Ealey and Dongmo both fluffed their attempts in round three and Mitton took the opportunity to climb into second spot with a mark of 19.90m, a 7cm improvement on her season’s best.
Thomas-Dodd also registered her best throw of the competition but her 19.59m kept her in fourth at the halfway stage.
Gong shook the order in the fourth round, graduating from seventh to third with 19.69m. That shunted Dongmo out of the provisional medal frame but only temporarily. She matched Gong’s fourth-round effort with a 19.69m throw of her own, reclaiming third spot by virtue of a superior secondary mark.
The battle for bronze gained further momentum in the penultimate round. Gong’s 19.67m took her past Dongmo, whose second best mark was 4cm shorter.
Meanwhile, Mitton hadn’t given up on the gold, sending her fifth round throw out to 20.08m, a season’s best.
Ealey’s response was immediate: 20.43m, an improvement on her best of 2023 and on her own lead, which was now 35cm.
And so to the final round.
Dongmo unleashed a huge effort but in her desperation to finish with the bronze she registered a foul. Gong was unable to improve, so the medal was hers.
And when Mitton stepped up with a foul, the gold belonged to Ealey, who could afford to finish with a foul before launching into celebration mode.
Behind the downcast Dongmo, Thomas-Dodd finished fifth with her 19.59m and Ewen sixth with 19.51m.
Simon Turnbull for World Athletics
| WOMEN'S SHOT PUT MEDALLISTS | ||
| 🥇 | Chase Ealey 🇺🇸 USA | 20.43m SB |
| 🥈 | Sarah Mitton 🇨🇦 CAN | 20.08m SB |
| 🥉 | Gong Lijiao 🇨🇳 CHN | 19.69m |
| Full results | ||
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