Dream toss by Thomas Schmitt improving his PB by over 2m

With an immense improvement shot putter Thomas Schmitt is pressing ahead in the national top list. In Ubach-Palenberg near Aachen, the 26-year-old catapulted the 7.26kg iron ball to 21.35 m - the eight best performance of all Germans so far.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxdqwhB-2bQ

Right at the beginning Thomas Schmitt improved his previous personal best of 19.07m by 37cm to 19.44m. "I felt that even more would be possible and the 20m should be reachable," said the 26 year old physics student who wanted to begin his master thesis. But in the meantime he turned his knowledge of the interactions of matter and energy in handy.

After "slipped" 18.77m Thomas improved further with a massive toss closely to the 20m mark. This toss was measured 19.94m, the 20m mark well in sight. The fourth round was the one no one expected to happen. Technically perfect Thomas Schmitt catapulted the 7.26kg ball to unbelieveable 21.35m. It was an improvement by 2.28m from his previous personal best. "Everyone was gobsmacked, I still can not believe it," the German shot put giant shook his head in disbelief even hours later.

Meticulously inspected

"It was an attempt, in which everything was fine and of which each shot putter dreams of. I stopped competiting after the last attempt because I was a nervous wreck completely at the end." Among the spectactors rumors of a possible manipulation made the rounds. The ball was re-weighted several times, judges searched the sports bag of the new north rhine westphalia record holder. The old record, held by Udo Gelhausen stood at 20.74m since 1977.

In the eternal German leaderboard Thomas Schmitt is now in eighth place. And about on a par with former European champion Ralf Bartels, who succeeded in 2009 by his best attempt 21.37 meters. The DLV standard for the World Cup in Beijing (China, August 22 to 30) is 20.60m.

Mostly injured

Most recently, Thomas Schmitt had mainly dealt with the discus throw. A joint injury prevented an accented shot put training. "Maybe that has cleared my head," Schmitt said.

The long-time protégé of former national coach Edvard Harnes coached himself the past three weeks before the competition. Sabrina Werrstein, who looked after him since last year, moved from the Cologne Sport University to the Institute for Applied Training Science (IAT) in Leipzig.

Source: Leichtathletik.de by Harold Koken

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