The best performance of Thursday night wasn’t even at the 2017 USATF Middle Distance Classic. Sure, there were world championship and U.S championship qualifying times that were hit but the biggest boom came from an infield in Tuscon.

Back when the site launched, I wrote a short post about this was going to be a big year for the shot put. Ryan Crouser is no fluke and got his year started early with a 22.15m throw in New Zealand back in February. Now there’s Olympic silver medalist Joe Kovacs with a massive 22.57m / 74′ 1/2″throw.

Just a personal best by a centimeter over his 22.56m throw at the 2015 Diamond League meet in Monaco. It also came just a day shy of the 27 year anniversary of Randy Barnes’ world record of 23.12m – even though his marks aren’t recognized by Track and Field News. This could be the year for those marks to fall.

While we may have had our eyes on the track at Occidental College, Kovacs gave us a little reminder to keep an eye on the throws.