Ryan Crouser breaks shot put world record in Idaho as Aleia Hobbs sets national 60m mark at U.S. indoors
Crouser threw 23.38m, one centimetre further than his outdoor best, with Hobbs going second on the women's 60m all-time list in Albuquerque.
Athletics
Ryan Crouser produced the biggest shot put throw in history on Saturday (18 February).
With his first throw in an exhibition event in Pocatello, Idaho, the reigning world and Olympic champion threw 23.38m for a new outright shot record, one centimetre further than his effort at the 2021 US Olympic Trials.
His previous indoor best was 22.82m in Fayetteville in January 2021.
This was Crouser's seventh career 23m-plus throw and one he later called "the biggest surprise of my career so far" having taken two days off training before the event.
The 30-year-old has been trialling a new technique to achieve more rotation power, but achieved the mark from a static start.
Aleia Hobbs steals headlines at U.S. Indoors
Some 1200km south in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Aleia Hobbs was making history of her own at the USA Track and Field Indoor Championships.
Hobbs won the women's 60m final in 6.94, one one-hundredth of a second inside Gail Devers' 29-year-old national record and two hundredths outside Irina Privalova's world record.
The 26-year-old, who recently told World Athletics that she had new motivation after becoming an adoptive mother last July, is now the second quickest woman of all time for the short sprint.
Noah Lyles reached the final of the men's 60m but elected not to race.
JT Smith took victory in a new personal best of 6.53 from Kendal Williams (6.59) and Isaiah Trousil (6.61).
Olympic champion Katie Moon (formerly Nageotte) cleared 4.80m with her second attempt as she took the women's pole vault title.
Former world champion Sam Kendricks produced a season's best when it counted to take the men's version.
After two failures at 5.86m, Kendricks went up to 5.91m and went over to defeat Jacob Wooten and KC Lightfoot.
William Williams Jr jumped a personal best 8.20m to take the men's long jump by over 50cm from Jalen Seals.
Crouser's biggest rival in the shot put, Joe Kovacs, left it late in Alburquerque.
Jordan Geist took the lead in round five with 21.36m, but two-time world champion Kovacs threw 21.55m in the sixth and final round to take victory.