Nigeria’s Chukwuebuka Enekwechi made history on Saturday as he became the first African to hit the 22-meter mark in men’s shot at the 2025 Prefontaine Classic in Eugene.
With a throw of 22.10m to finish third, Enekwechi now owns seven of the continent’s top ten all-time marks. Others on the prestigious list are South Africa’s Janus Robberts (21.97m from 2001), Nigeria’s Stephen Mozia (21.76m from 2016) and Egypt’s Mostafa Amr Hassan (21.65m from 2023).
Saturday’s meet, which was the ninth leg of the 2025 Diamond League, saw five men throw beyond 22 meters in a single meet for the first time in global athletics. Joe Kovacs won with 22.48m, followed by Roger Steen (22.11m) and Enekwechi. Adrian Piperi (22.09m) and Rajindra Campbell (22.04m) followed the Nigerian star.
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Enekwechi earned the highest result score of his career as his throw earned him 1246 points. In an interview with DyeStat after the event, Enekwechi shared the work he put into setting an African shot put record.
“I came here last year and threw 21.91 metres,” he said. “I just wanted to throw 22 metres this time. That’s the new standard. I figured I have a couple of years left in my career, so I wanted to hit that mark. I got it. 22 metres. Wow.”
“I nailed it on my second attempt.”
“I just stuck to the game plan,” he said, adding that he recently made some lifestyle changes, including modifying his diet, dropping a bit of weight, and increasing his protein intake.
“I’ve also been doing some intense lifts, including jump squats with over 500 pounds. I’m just trying to compete with the bigger guys and it worked out,” he said.
With 98,121 points, the 2025 Prefontaine Classic was officially ranked the highest-scoring single-day athletics meet ever.
Two world records were also made on the day as Kenya’s Beatrice Chebet broke the women’s 5000m mark in 13:58.06 and Faith Kipyegon got back her 1500m world record in 3:48.68.
For Enewkechi, his 22-meter throw is perhaps his favorite throw ever. “That throw, everything came together. My form was in perfect balance. I released it smoothly and didn’t even have to fight to stay inside the ring. It all just clicked. Honestly, it felt great, probably my favourite throw ever.”
