U.S. Is Put in Its Place in Shotput

ATHENS — American hopes of another gold medal in the men’s shotput sank like a spherical 16-pound weight in the Greek twilight Saturday at the World Championships.

Randy Barnes, 1996 Olympic gold medalist and 1997 world leader, failed to get out of the afternoon qualifying round, missing the cut with a best of 64- 1/4--more than 10 feet off his world record of 75-10 1/4.

John Godina, 1995 world champion, failed to repeat while walking through his final attempt to catch eventual gold medalist Aleksandr Bagach of the Ukraine.

And C.J. Hunter and John Toth, who both finished ahead of Godina at last month’s U.S. championships, failed to medal at all, placing fourth and eighth, respectively.

Bagach upset Godina by an inch, 70-5 1/4 to 70-4 1/2. Oliver-Sven Buder of Germany took the bronze medal with a personal-best mark of 69-8 1/4.

“I messed up,” Godina said. “There was no way I should have lost today. . . . I should’ve been a lot further. I’ve got to start winning these things. It seems like someone always squeaks by, and it’s starting to make me a little bit upset.”

Barnes squeaked by Godina to win the gold medal at the 1996 Olympics, and outdistanced him again at last month’s U.S. championships. Godina finished fourth there, qualifying for the world meet only through a wild card as defending world champion.

Toth and Hunter placed 2-3 at the U.S. championships, but neither came close to medaling here. Hunter’s best put was 66-8 1/2, Toth’s 65-8 1/4.

Barnes was left almost speechless after missing the afternoon cut.

“I can’t explain it,” he said. “I don’t know what happened.”

U.S. shotputters had won gold medals in each of the previous three major world competitions--Mike Stulce at the 1992 Olympics, Godina at the 1995 Worlds and Barnes at the 1996 Olympics.

Godina blamed himself.

“I should have won tonight,” he said. “There is no excuse, I just lost and I have to admit it. I’m disappointed not because I lost, but because I didn’t do what I should have done--say, throw 22 meters.

“But I’m still a kid--I have 12 or 13 years ahead of me. I will eventually do it right.”