Dylan Armstrong Nails Silver

Dylan Armstrong of Kamloops won Canada’s first medal at the 2011 world track and field championships being held in South Korea. Dylan grabbed a silver in the men’s shot put in South Korea.

His best throw of 21.64 metres had him in the lead with just one other athlete left to throw in the final round and it was David Storl of Germany who managed to be a “bit” better than Armstrong.

Strol’s personal best was 21.78m which moved him into top spot. Armstrong had a chance to grab the gold back with one final toss but he was called for a foul (the shot landed well short anyway), giving the victory to Storl.

Andrei Mikhnevich of Belarus claimed the bronze with a mark of 21.40m in the Day 7 evening session at Daegu Stadium.

Officials keeping track of the heat and watching for any athlete with heat-stroke recorded a temperature at 27 C with 64 per cent humidity on the day.

Armstrong’s silver is the first medal ever won by a Canadian in a throwing competition at the world track and field championships.

These Championships have been held 13 times since they started dating back to 1983. It’s also the first medal at a global senior international competition for Armstrong, who missed the bronze medal at the Beijing Olympics by one centimetre.

Armstrong won gold at last year’s Commonwealth Games and at the 2007 Pan American Games.

He was a silver medallist in the hammer throw at the junior world championships in 2000.

The 30-year-old from Kamloops, was considered Canada’s best, and perhaps only, hope for a medal at this year’s worlds in Daegu.

He’s the world leader this year with a throw of 22.21 at the Canadian championships in June.

Three Canadian 100m hurdlers, including former world champion Perdita Felicien, advanced to the women’s semi-finals earlier in the day.
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