Shot putters could sweep at ancient venue

By Dick Patrick

USA TODAY

The U.S. shot putters say they are inspired by the ancient stadium at Olympia. Just as important, they report the facilities meet modern standards, increasing the USA's chance of a medal sweep.

``It's absolutely perfect,'' says John Godina, winner of the silver medal in 1996 in Atlanta and the bronze in 2000 in Sydney.

Godina's coach, Art Venegas, was apprehensive the conditions might hurt the U.S. team of Olympic trials champion Adam Nelson, runner-up Reese Hoffa and third-place Godina. Venegas' worry was that the concrete throwing circles would not be cured properly and would cause the Americans, all of whom use a discuslike spinning technique, to slip on the surface like figure skaters.

That shouldn't be a problem. ``They have four incredible rings in the practice area,'' Hoffa says. ``They're extremely fast and have really good stickiness to them. It reminds us of a lot of West Coast rings that are really, really good.''

U.S. throwers have dominated the event this year, led by Christian Cantwell, who has the top four marks, with a best of 73 feet, 11 1/2 inches, but finished fourth in the trials and failed to make the team. Add the best marks of Godina (71-2 3/4), 2000 Olympic silver medalist Nelson (71-1 1/2) plus Hoffa (71-1 1/4), and the USA has the 17 best performances of the year.

The U.S. women, Kristin Heaston and Laura Gerraughty, who also compete today at Olympia, are not considered medal threats.

The international contenders include South Africa's Janus Robberts (69-8 1/4), Denmark's Joachim Olsen (68-10 3/4), Belarus' 2003 world champion Andrei Mikhnevich (69-8) and Ukraine's Yuriy Bilonog (68-6).