Olympic gold goes to Ogunleye with 20.00m ahead of Maddison-Lee Wesche as defending champion Lijiao Gong is fifth
Going into the final round of the Olympic women’s shot put final, Yemisi Ogunleye of Germany was sitting in second place behind Maddison-Lee Wesche of New Zealand.
The 25-year-old from Mannheim gathered herself for the biggest throw of her life, though, and hurled the shot out to 20.00m dead.
Ogunleye is a gospel singer in her spare time and even sang at her victory press conference when asked if she was thinking of any songs during the competition. She certainly hit all the right notes in the Stade de France on Friday.
Her best at that point was 19.73m from the fifth round. Wesche, meanwhile, had led with a PB of 19.86m from the first round.
The Kiwi athlete’s heart was about to be broken, though, as Ogunleye took to the circle.
Maddison-Lee Wesche (Getty)
As soon as Ogunleye let the shot go, she knew it was a good throw. On seeing the distance, she collapsed to the track in joy. Gold was hers.
“I just lifted my hands and prayed before my final attempt and I wanted to have a good last round,” said Ogunleye, who won European bronze in June despite a knee injury.
“Then after that throw and realising it would maybe be good enough for gold, I thought ‘thank you, Jesus’.”
Ogunleye, a former gymnast, also changed in recent years from the gliding technique to a rotational method – a bold move that paid off in Paris.
Wesche, the 2018 world under-20 champion, held on to silver as Jiayuan Song of China took bronze with 19.32m.
In fifth, Lijiao Gong, the reigning Olympic champion from China, finished fifth with 19.27m.
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