With friends and family nearby, shot putter Tim Nedow likes to put on a show and he did exactly that Friday night at the North American Central American and Caribbean (NACAC) Championships being held at the University of Toronto’s Varsity Stadium. The man who measures an even two metres hurled his 16 pound ball out to a new outdoor best of 21.02m to capture silver behind 2017 Diamond League shot put champion Darrell Hill of the United States
Friday night’s performance was unusual for Nedow in that his best throw of the evening came on his first throw. “I was pretty surprised. I’ve never had a first round throw my best,” said Nedow to CBC’s Perdita Felicien. Typically the Brockville native takes his time finding his competition groove, as evidenced by his last round heroics that put him on the podium at the Commonwealth Games in Australia this past April.
Nedow had thrown his previous outdoor best of 20.94 metres just last month to capture his sixth Canadian title, but had battled some nagging injuries since, limiting him to just one competition in between. “[The body] wasn’t great, but I got a pretty good adrenaline rush with the home crowd and just went with it. I couldn’t not put a show on for them,” Nedow said after the event. His lifetime best remains at 21.33 metres from a 2016 indoor competition in Stockholm.
While he says he feels he can still throw a lot farther this year, Nedow has decided to shut down his season. In an Instagram post he said, “Even though I came away with a pb I’m shutting down my season. Been dealing with a lot of minor tweaks all year that have been holding me back. Worlds is a long way away so going to take care of this stuff now and be ready to smash this pb.”
