DES MOINES, IOWA, April 23 — Will 2025 be remembered as the Year of Innovation in track & field? Michael Johnson’s Grand Slam Track kicked things off with a new competition format for runners; now Ryan Crouser’s World Shot Put Series at the Drake Relays threw the changeup for field eventers.
While it’s unlikely either format will eventually become the standard for championship events, Crouser’s new twist was undeniably fun.
Here’s how it worked: instead of each athlete throwing as far as possible on every attempt, they tried to clear a certain line. Get past 50ft and you get a chance to throw for 60; clear that and you go for 65; and so on. Sort of like a high jump competition for putters. Marks were not precisely measured.
The actual mechanics of the throw conformed to normal rules, but beyond that:
| ● | Each athlete got two attempts per line. |
| ● | Place tiebreakers were determined by fewest total failures. |
| ● | Each athlete got one “challenge flag” (thrown like an NFL coach challenging a referee ruling). These were basically do-overs for a poor throw and came with risk — a missed challenge attempt would put two additional failures on your scorecard, so everyone used them only as last-ditch efforts to stay alive. |
| ● | Referees would signal whether a throw was successful or short, and if it was questionable, they borrowed from football again and brought out chains to measure. |
Contestants included “challengers” (college throwers from Iowa schools) and pros. The pros entered at 60 feet, where a few challengers remained. The last of the schoolboys went out at 65.
Obviously, it behooved throwers to exert as little effort as possible early on, but Tripp Piperi didn’t seem to get it — he boomed his first two throws well beyond the 60 and 65 lines.
All the pros survived past 65, although American-born Italian Nick Ponzio had to use a challenge to stay alive after a foot foul and a short throw.
At 68ft, Ponzio and Josh Awotunde were gone, and Jordan Geist and American-born Nigerian Chuk Enekwechi failed at 70, leaving Piperi, Roger Steen, Jamaica’s Rajindra Campbell, Payton Otterdahl and Crouser still in contention.
The 71-foot line claimed event organizer Crouser. Piperi and Steen had first-throw makes, Otterdahl cleared on his second and Campbell stayed alive on an excellent challenge throw.
72 brought drama. Both Piperi and Steen needed challenge throws to survive. Campbell had two fouls and Otterdahl two short throws, and both had used up their challenges in rounds, so they were gone.
As the line was redrawn at 73ft, Piperi and Steen moved into uncharted territory — Piperi’s official PR is 71-4 (21.74) and Steen’s is 72-5¼ (22.08). Piperi’s first attempt at 73 fell short; Steen cleared. Piperi responded with a solid second-attempt make.
Neither could get past 74 feet, so Steen took the title by virtue of four total failures versus six for Piperi.
So here’s what matters most: The audience in the Drake fieldhouse ate it up.
“The crowd has been awesome,” Crouser told interviewer Stamatía Skarvélis, a two-time Olympian for Greece. “The format engaged the crowd. I mean, you don’t usually see people cheering for a 65-foot throw like that. We had five guys over 70ft, which with this format is crazy. In a normal comp, that’s phenomenal. I think that’s a testament to the atmosphere and the energy that we had. It has me really excited for the future of WSPS.
“The athlete in me wishes I had thrown a little bit better, but the meet promoter portion and business executive and everything else I’ve been with this is super happy with it.”
Winner Steen said he was “a little tired” after 11 throws, but his coach “put me in a good spot. I got heavy in the weight room and got a big base right now, so I gotta take advantage. And competition’s competition. It’s a great atmosphere here. All the energy came out and it’s super fun.
“I’ll probably have to sleep a little bit extra [before Saturday’s actual shot competition] but I love to compete and it’s such a great time. You put on a show.”
“Incredible,” said Piperi. “I just got a lifetime PR by 2ft. I’m unbelievably happy.”
Said Crouser, “I’m really happy with how [this] has shown that the field events can be highlighted and they can be front and center — that we have a loud, enthusiastic crowd out here just for a field event. It doesn’t have to be just track. It can be just field.”
