by Larry Eder
This is RunBlogRun’s feature on the Women’s shot put on day one of the 2022 European Athletics Championships, which are being held August 15-21, 2022 in Munich, Germany.
2022 Munich Diary, Jessica Schilder gets her gold!
The Women’s shot put has some storied athletes. I worshipped Valaria Adams, the Kiwi/Maori superstar. Her throwing was magnificent, but her interviews were that of legend. She could excoriate a media member who did not know about the shot put with bon mots that the media person did not know were coming. Ah, it was a thing of art.
Jessica Schilder is a shot putter from the Netherlands. Jessica is all of twenty-three. She won the bronze medal in March 2022 in Belgrade, Serbia, in the women’s shot put at the World Athletics Indoor Champs. In July 2022, Jessica followed that up with a bronze in the Women’s shot put, behind USA’s Chase Ealey and China’s Lijao Gong.
The European Champs were to be Auriol Dongmos’ domain. Auriol won the World Indoor with Chase Ealey in silver and Jessica in bronze.
I guess that no one gave Jessica Schilder the script. In Munich, Jessica had a glorious series: 19.47m, to take the lead, then, BOOM!, 20.24 metres, a new European leader! Schilder followed up with 19.18m, 19.24m, 19.12m, and 19.13m.
The star of European shot putting had recently been Auriol Dongmo, who opened at 19.29m, then 19.82 metres, a new National record, then 19.01m, a foul, 19.46m and 19.52m. Auriol just could not get over 20 metres.
The Netherlands took two medals in the women’s shot put. Besides Jessica Schilder taking gold, Jorinda Van Klinken took the bronze with a fine 18.94-metre throw, which happened on her second attempt.
Afterwards, Jessica was overjoyed, and she told the assembled media: “
This is really like a dream, and I did not expect this to happen at the end of the season. I did not expect it tonight because the qualification in the morning did not go so well. I just needed a little more – an extra push, and it just happened. I switched to the national training centre last September. We train indoors and out, and we had a great preparation for this season. Today, I am especially happy for Jorinde as she did a great job. I am so excited and glad to share the podium with her. It is just surreal what just happened. I tried to relax between the qualification and the final, and my coach helped me a lot. It worked out, and I am full of emotions now. It was nerve-wracking and I am glad I managed it so well.”
