Edmonton, CANADA, August 4 - Despite his season's best of 20.91, Yugoslav Dragan Peric failed to win medal in shot put at the 8th IAAF World Championships in Athletics. He won fifth place, only two centimeters behind third-placed Olympic champion Arsi Harju of Finland.
USA's John Godina won his third world shot put title, defeating teammate Adam Nelson and Arsi Harju in the highest quality shot put final ever.
A spectacular first round saw USA's world 1995 and 1997 Godina take the final by the scruff
of the neck, spinning the shot out to a commanding 21.87m. However, he was followed by
another eight throwers who with their first attempts also crossed the 20m line! Yugoslavia's
Dragan Peric moved up to second, throwing his season's best of 20.91m, Spain's European Cup winner Manuel Martinez (20.78m) and Canadian champion Bradley Snyder (20.63m) were the best of the
chasing pack, which also included Harju (20.28m) and world leader Janus Robbets (20.12m).
Godina continued in the same manner in round two with 21.80m and was followed by
Nelson, the Olympic silver medallist who threw 20.86m to move up to third.
In the third round the most surprising result was the elimination at this point of Commonwealth champion Janus Robbets whose season's best of 21.97m is the world's leading mark.
In the fourth round Harju moved into second place with 20.93m in the fourth round. Only moments later Nelson moved the Finn back down to third taking second place himself with 21.24m. After his massive first round, Dragan Peric didn't manage to put another good performance and finally took fifth place.
Peric was 2nd in European Indoor Championships 1994 and twice 4th in European
Championships (indoor and outdoor) in 1998. He was eight times national champion in shot put
and three times in discus. National record holder in shot put (21.77) and discus (61.94).
