Taiwan’s Chang Ming-huang fired a season’s best with his last try in the qualifying round of the men’s shot put at the Olympic Games yesterday to squeak into the final.
The 2010 Asian Games bronze medalist, Chang had a best throw of 19.13m after his first two attempts, leaving him languishing among the also-rans in the field of 40 athletes, from which only the top 12 were to qualify for the final.
Down to his final qualifying throw, Chang put up a season’s best of 20.25m, good enough for eighth place at the time.
He then had to wait for a few anxious moments as other competitors beat his mark with their third throws, pushing him down the standings. However, in the end his throw was good enough to take the 12th and final qualifying position.
Reese Hoffa of the US led the round with a throw of 21.36m, one of three shot-putters to go over the 21m mark.
Chang was third in the 2010 Asian Games with a throw of 19.48m, behind gold medalist Sultan Abdulmajeed al-Hebshi of Saudi Arabia and silver medalist Zhang Jun of China.
Al-Hebshi is not competing in London, while Zhang did not put up a score in any of his three attempts yesterday and was eliminated from the competition.
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