top of page

Wesche collects silver in women's shot put

Maddi Wesche Paris Olympics shot put
Maddi Wesche earned the silver medal with a personal-best throw of 19.86m. PHOTO: THE NZ TEAM

New Zealand's Maddi Wesche has claimed the silver medal in a confusing conclusion to the women's shot put final at the Paris Olympics.


With the final throw of the competition on Friday (Saturday NZ Time), Wesche appeared to send the shot out over the 20m mark, with commentators speculating that the 25-year-old Kiwi had won the gold medal.


LATEST HEADLINES:


With TV cameras not picking up the shot's landing point, but the measuring judge seeming to put his foot out over 20m, the throw was only measured at 19.68m, meaning German Yemisi Ogunleye took the gold, with 20.00m on her last attempt.


Wesche had led in the early rounds, before she and Ogunyele exchanged the lead in the later rounds.


With light rain coming down, which caused footing to become perilous, Wesche heaved her second throw out to 19.58m, which easily put her through to the last-eight.



After an effort of 19.10m in the fourth round, Wesche uncorked a personal-best of 19.86m to retake the lead after Ogunyele had usurped her with an effort of 19.73m seconds earlier. However, down to her last throw, the tall German hit the 20m tape for victory.


Wesche follows in the steps of shot putting Queen Valerie Adams, who won gold medals at Beijing 2008 and London 2012, silver at Rio 2016 and bronze at Tokyo 2020.


Wesche's medal was New Zealand's seventh silver in Paris, and 15th overall, making it the country's third-best Olympics.

bottom of page