Fascinating story from The Sports Examiner, courtesy of Track & Field News on the technical aspects of Ryan Crouser’s super throw!
Crouser’s 76-8 1/2 shot stunner may not be a world record
Track & Field News obtained the details of Ryan Crouser’s sensational 23.38 m (76-8 1/2) performance at the Simplot Games last Saturday in Pocatello, Idaho, reporting that the mark – made indoors – may not be ratified by World Athletics as a world record.
Although indoor marks are allowed as “absolute” world records where the competition conditions are similar – Sweden’s Mondo Duplantis set a world men’s vault mark indoors last year – the regulations for the shot put require a metal ball for outdoor competitions, but allow a plastic or rubber casing for indoor events.
On that basis, World Athletics may not ratify the 23.38 m throw as an “absolute” world record.
However, Crouser does not appear to be worried. He threw the 23.38 m on his first try, without a wind-up, then switched to his new “Crouser Glide” technique in which he adds a step to his spin technique to try and develop extra power behind the ball.
The rest of his series was 22.48 m (73-9), foul, 22.04 m (72-3 3/4), 22.60 m (74-1 3/4) and 22.26 m (73-0 1/2). The 22.60 m throw in round five was the equal-7th performance of all time.
Crouser told T&FN Managing Editor Sieg Lindstrom about the new technique:
”In training I just called it ‘step across,’ but the Crouser Slide, that’s what the guys that I train with at Arkansas jokingly call it and that name seems to have kind of stuck. And I did that in the later rounds. The most surprising thing is the 23.38 came off of a static.
“But I’m excited cuz the slide in training is about 77cm [c30 inches or 2½ feet!] over my static. But then of course in a meet there’s a little bit more to go wrong. The slide was much better this week than it was at Millrose.
“I mean, it’s trying to make up a lot of ground. Look at how many times I’ve thrown with a standard technique. So it’s a matter of closing the gap and hopefully we can get that spread in the future off of what I’ve seen in training.”
Wow.
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