David Storl in shot put qualifying at the 2014 IAAF World Indoor Championships in Sopot (© Getty Images)
Germany’s two-time world champion outdoors David Storl led the qualifiers with 21.24m but there was a couple of surprises as both the USA’s Kurt Roberts and Serbia's Asmir Kolasinac failed to progress.
Storl needed to go into the circle three times to guarantee his place in the final but eventually secured it with ease.
Best of the rest was the USA’s defending champion Ryan Whiting who sent his implement flying straight over the automatic qualifying distance of 20.70m to register 20.75m with his first throw.
The only other automatic qualifier was Argentina’s South American record-holder German Lauro with 20.73m, getting things right with his second throw after fouling his first effort.
Even though he continues to have problems with his technique, Poland’s two-time Olympic champion Tomasz Majewski went through fourth with 20.60m to make the supportive home crowd very happy.
Roberts, who has thrown 21.50m for second on the 2014 world lists, was another man who had technical problems, fouling his first two attempts before reaching 20.17m but it was not enough to see him through to Friday night’s final. With only the top eight going through, Roberts ended the morning 10th.
European indoor champion Kolasinac had similar problems and, after his opening put of 20.04m, had two fouls and will also watch tonight’s final from the team seats.
Another man who might have had ambitions of making the final was 2014 Russian indoor champion Maksim Sidorov, who was fifth at the last edition of the World Indoor Championships two years ago and reached 20.78m to win his national title three weeks ago, but was almost two metres down on that figure in Sopot with 18.98m.
Phil Minshull for the IAAF
