DURHAM, N.C. - When Joachim Olsen completed his spin and faced the sandy expanse of the shot put sector only to see the metal ball still airborne, he knew he'd just done something special.
Special enough to earn Olsen, a University of Idaho sophomore from Halborg, Denmark, the NCAA shot put championship in one of the most spirited competitions in recent memory.
"When I saw it land, I thought 'Wow,' " said Olsen of the winning put of 66 feet, 5?ľ inches. "I didn't think it would go that far."
Another Vandal, junior Katja Schreiber from Floha, Germany, finished fourth in the discus and Shana Ball, a senior from McMinneville, Ore., was 12th in the discus. Schreiber had a throw of 177-3 and Ball had a 163-6. Ball competes in the shot put today.
The put that proved to be the winner for Olsen came during the fifth round of throws, a round during which track and field's biggest men gave their biggest efforts. Olsen started the round in second place. But Herculean heaves by Janus Robberts of Southern Methodist, Jim Roberts of Brigham Young, and Reese Hoffa of Georgia pushed Olsen to fourth.
He responded by letting his instincts take over.
"Everybody started throwing really far," Olsen said of the super-charged atmosphere that was building at the shot put ring. "I was like, 'I know I can do this. I know I can beat them.'
"I just decided not to think too much. I had been thinking about technique. I just emptied my head. I just gave it everything I had."
As good as the throw was, Olsen knew each had one more chance.
"I was really nervous before that last throw," Olsen said. "Janus fouled on his last throw. Then the next guy, when he delivered the shot, he said, 'no.' "
That's all Olsen needed to hear to know the title soon would be his. His final throw - 65-8?Ľ - still was the third best mark of the meet.
"I was going nuts," Olsen said. "I was running around, jumping in the air. It was so amazing."
Olsen and UI coach Wayne Phipps said the intensity of the competition pushed the throwers to their limits. Olsen entered the meet with the nation's third-best mark - 65-2.
"It was such a good competition," said Olsen, whose next stop is the Olympic Games as a thrower for his native Denmark.
Two other Vandals also competed Thursday but not with the same success as Olsen. Senior 400-meter specialist Tawanda Chiwira couldn't overcome a nagging hamstring injury and missed the semifinals by two-tenths of a second and sophomore sprinter Nikele Ndebele false started in the 100-meter preliminaries.
