Kristen Heaston - the first competitor in Olympia (© Getty Images)
Olympia, GreeceA capacity crowd of 15,000 spectators with thousands more people pressing to gain access to the Ancient Olympic stadium, brought great theatre to this morning’s qualification round of the men’s and women’s Shot Put competition of the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad.
The great attraction of watching tonight’s finals in the historic setting of the Olympia has never been in any doubt but could the organisers or anyone else for that matter have predicted such a turnout of spectators for the qualifying round of the women’s Shot Put which began at 8.30am!
With the grassy slopes of the ancient stade already nearly full of spectators, a five kilometre long line of cars was still trundling towards the usually sleepy town of Olympia, their occupants travelling in hope of sampling this momentous moment in Olympic and Athletics history.
With two qualification pools of shot putters performing simultaneous in the hope of joining in the fight for medals this evening, it was USA’s Kristen Heaston in Group B who got a slight jump on the first thrower in the other circle, Guirong Zhang of Singapore. Therefore it is the American's name that will most likely be recalled in every Olympic history book that has yet to be written.
In starting first with an unspectacular put of 16.41m, 28 year-old Heaston became the first athlete in 1611 years to compete in an Olympic Games in Olympia’s picturesque stadium.
This historic milestone in Olympic history was appropriately marked at a personal level by the presence of Heaston’s mother Marsha, who had loyally come to cheer on her daughter, who with a PB of 18.56 (also her season’s best) was always going to be at her very best to qualify (18.50 was the automatic mark). Sadly, Heaston’s father had tragically died of brain cancer in 1999.
Today’s historic moment was certainly not lost on Heaston, who was overawed by the whole experience.
“I kind of thought about the history of this place on the plane over (to Europe) but once your get here it is just about performing well….However, as you can see (from her non-qualifying performance) I probably needed to think a little more about what I was doing in the ring, than I was doing in history,” smiled Heaston.
”I am going to cheer on my friends who are throwing again later on this afternoon (in the final) and that itself is going to be special.”
All competitors today like the athletes of ancient times entered the stadium through a stone archway which dramatically gives form to the sunken entrance-way into the Olympic arena.
“It was a really cool, awesome experience to make our entrance through that gateway….”
”I knew I’d really enjoy it and I just couldn’t take it all in. It has all been such an unbelievable experience. A reminder of where it all began,” confirmed Heaston.
The unanimous experience of all who attended today’s unique occasion.
Chris Turner for the IAAF
Click below for full reports of the qualifications -
