JEFFERSON — The boy who had the farthest throw in the shot put at Thursday’s state championship track meet did it with somebody else’s steel ball.
Kell’s Jordan Chambers won the Class AAAA title with a throw of 61 feet, 7 1/2 inches. It was his personal record, a school record and the meet’s longest throw of the day.
And he did it with someone else’s shot put.
“When I went to get it weighed in, the officials examined it and said I couldn’t use it because it had a dent in it,” said Chambers, who added that around half of the 16 qualifiers also had their shot puts ruled illegal for one reason or another.
It was the same shot put that Chambers had used the past couple of seasons, including when he finished third in the event at last year’s state meet.
On Thursday, Carrollton’s coaches offered to let Chambers borrow one. But it was different — less dense and made of stainless steel — rather than his favorite shot put of regular iron. Chambers frantically made about 20 throws in warm-ups before he felt comfortable with the new shot put.
The rest is history.
“Jordan holds his fingers real close, which you’re supposed anyways to do because it gives you more flexibility,” Kell coach Courtney Oliver said. “If you spread your fingers out, you can’t throw the smaller shot puts as well.
“I knew by the end of warm-ups, watching how quickly he adjusted — it was going to be a good day. I told him ‘We’re going over 60 today’ and he did.”
The 5-foot-11, 225-pound Chambers also plays football and got his first scholarship offer earlier this week from Southern Miss. The stocky linebacker also has generated interest from Florida State and Kansas, among others.
Another football player was the center of attention Thursday. Thomas County Central’s Ray Drew, who has signed to play at Georgia, won the Class AAAA championship in the discus with a throw of 183-7, but fell well short of the state record (204-2).
Drew threw between 190 and 200 feet during warm-ups, to the applause of the crowd. However, his record-breaking chances ended when he injured the arch of his left foot on his first competitive throw.
“By my standards, [my performance] would be a fail,” Drew said. “It’s bittersweet. Even though I did get first place, which I’m satisfied with, I didn’t reach my goal, which was to break the state record or come close to it.”
Thursday was the first day of the three-day meet at Memorial Stadium.
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