Tom Walsh wins his fourth world indoor gold for New Zealand as multiple British champion Lincoln finishes agonisingly outside the medals in Poland.
Scott Lincoln achieved Britain’s best-ever result at the World Indoor Championships on Sunday (March 22). His furthest throw of 21.13m is also the best by a British shot putter at a major champs. But such are his high standards, he will be disappointed to finish narrowly outside the medals in fourth.
It’s often described as “the worst position to finish”. So near and yet so far. Lincoln, 32, has had to stomach it several times, too.
Two years ago he was fourth at the European Championships in Rome, whereas 12 months ago he finished fourth again at the European Indoor Championships in Apeldoorn.
This was a global event in Toruń, though, as Lincoln finished behind Tom Walsh, the New Zealander winning his fourth world indoor title with 21.82m, plus runner-up Jordan Geist with 21.64m and Roger Steen with 21.49m, both of whom represent the United States.
Lincoln put some fine throwers behind him too. They included the reigning European outdoor champion
details Leonardo Fabbri of Italy – finishing seventh here – plus the one-two from last year’s European Indoors – Andrei Rares Toader of Romania and Wictor Petersson of Sweden – who finished 12th and fifth on this occasion.
What’s more, Konrad Bukowiecki of Poland, a former European indoor champion, finished eighth despite home support and following the success of his wife, Natalia, who took 400m silver 24 hours earlier.
What made it even more frustrating for Lincoln is that he was in a medal position during the contest. His 20.98m in the first round put him in second place and he was third after throwing a season’s best of 21.13m in the second round. Thereafter he threw 20.78m, 20.65m, 21.06m and 20.88m, but it was not to be.
“Being within a shout all the way through makes it a lot harder,” he said. “There’s a lot of disappointment but I held my own and held things together. I think to still be in it going into the last round and giving it a good crack, my coach (Dale Stevenson) will be happy.”
Lincoln is now based in Melbourne with a new training group and is clearly thriving under the new set-up. He looks to be reaching the peak of his career with Geoff Capes’ long-standing British record of 21.68m his ultimate target.
READ MORE: Scott Lincoln interview
Apart from dealing with a bit of jetlag during the past couple of months due to the long trip from Australian to Europe, plus the British team pulling out of one of his planned warm-up competitions – the European Throws Cup in Cyprus due to security concerns – he said: “My prep has been incredible in the build-up and I threw some big throws in training in the past few days although that means nothing if you don’t do it out here.
“We have two big majors this year – both at home – so we’ll just keep moving and believing.”
