American throws 23.37m to beat Randy Barnes’ long-standing mark at the US Team Trials in Eugene

Randy Barnes’ world shot put record has finally fallen to Ryan Crouser. Such has been Crouser’s form recently, there was an air of inevitability about it. But Barnes’ mark of 23.12m has been untouchable since 1990. Untouchable until Friday (June 18), that is, at the US Team Trials in Eugene, when Crouser threw 23.37m to create history.

Barnes’ long-standing record has been a controversial one too. After he threw his 23.12m in Los Angeles in May 1990 he failed a doping test for a steroid three months later in Malmo. Eight years later he was given a lifetime ban for a further doping offence too. However, he passed a drugs test after his world record throw and so it was allowed to stand.

Many track and field fans will therefore be pleased to see the 28-year-old reigning Olympic champion beat the mark. “It felt like a huge weight lifted,” he said. “I knew it’s been a possibility or potential to do it since 2017.”

Crouser broke the world indoor record earlier this year and had given a hint he was in record-breaking form earlier in the day at the US Team Trials when he threw 22.92m in qualifying – the fifth best throw in history.

A few hours later in the final he opened with 22.61m to take an early lead followed by 22.55m and 22.73m. In the fourth round, though, Crouser broke Barnes’ record with 23.37m.

After celebrating, he then fouled his fifth effort and finished with 22.62m to close his competition and, of course, book his place in the American team for the Olympics alongside runner-up Joe Kovacs and Payton Otterdahl.

Crouser was born in Oregon a couple of years before Barnes’ world record throw and his family is steeped in throwing. His father Mitch Crouser was an alternate on the 1984 Olympic discus team, while his uncle Brian qualified for two Olympic teams in the javelin and his another uncle, Dean, was a good shot putter and discus thrower.

The other final of the first day of these US Team Trials saw Woody Kincaid win the 10,000m in 27:53.62 ahead of Grant Fisher and Joe Klecker, while Galen Rupp, the US marathon trials winner last year, was sixth.

See full results here.