World Athletics Championships: New Zealand's Walsh Qualifies for Men's Shot Put Final

Doha, October 04 (QNA) - New Zealand's Tom Walsh set the standard in qualifying for the men's shot put at the IAAF World Athletics Championships Doha 2019, which is being hosted by Doha at Khalifa Stadium until October 6. Walsh got his title defense off to a flying start in Doha, with his first and only throw of 21.92 meters sailing over the automatic qualifying mark by more than a meter. Walsh topped Group A ahead of Diamond League record holder Darlan Romani (21.69m) of Brazil. None of the competitors from the second group were able to better those efforts, with Olympic champion Ryan Crouser qualifying third overall with a heave of 21.67m. "I wanted to come out tonight and throw one and get it over and done with, and put the feet up as fast as I can, so that's what I managed to do along with three other guys," Walsh said. Armin SINANCEVIC of Serbia finished in the fourth place with a heave of 21.51m, followed by American Darrell HILL with a heave of 21.25m. Other athletes who qualified for the final were Konrad BUKOWIECKI of Poland, Jacko Gill of New Zealand, Tomas STANEK of Czech, Filip Mihaljevic of Croatia, Tim NEDOW of Canada, and Chukwuebuka ENEKWECHI of Nigeria. (QNA)