Aug. 23, 2015
BEIJING, CHINA -- Former Nittany Lion and Penn State alum Joe Kovacs is an International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) world champion following the final of the men's shot put from Beijing National Stadium in China.
"It was supposed to happen, I just had to make it happen," said Kovacs. "That's probably the best thing." Kovacs, who held the lead after four attempts, secured the win on his fifth attempt tossing a meet best 21.93 (71' 11½") to return the world championship in shot put back to the United States for the first time since 2009 when American Christian Cantwell captured the gold.
"It's my first world championships, I was excited to come away with the win," said Kovacs. "Coming in as the favorite, I think anyone in the United States shot put kind of feels that we're always in the mix. It's the first team I made and being in U.S. shot put, you kind of expect to be at the top."
Kovacs, who won the first national title of his career at the USA Track and Field National Championships last year with a throw of 22.03 (72-3.5), was a Penn State student-athlete from 2008-2011 recording a bronze medal performance in the shot put as a senior at the 2011 NCAA outdoor track and field championships for the Nittany Lions.
Kovacs currently holds the best mark in the world for the 2015 season with a toss of 22.56 m (74' 0") in Monaco which broke the oldest IAAF Diamond League record on the books, and also was the best throw in the world since 2003, placing him eighth on the world all-time list
Information from iaaf.org was included in this story.