Mexican Athlete Uziel Muñoz Achieves Historic Eighth Place in Shot Put

The 28-year-old from Chihuahua, Uziel Aarón Muñoz Galarza, made history in Mexican athletics by achieving eighth place in the shot put final, with a mark of 20.88 meters, at the Paris 2024 Games, which took place at the Stade de France, in front of approximately 80 thousand spectators.

Muñoz is the first Mexican to reach an Olympic final in this event, which was attended by the best 12 athletes of the 31 competitors who participated in this modality.

The Pan American runner-up from Santiago 2023 started the competition with a good throw of 20.68 meters, which was first marked as a fault, but after the Mexican's protest and subsequent review, it was considered valid and placed him among the four best in the first round.

In the second round, Muñoz Galarza achieved his best throw and registered 20.88 meters, which temporarily placed him in seventh place. For his third attempt, he marked 20.80, to place eighth and passed the first cut of the final, since only the best eight throwers of the first three attempts have the opportunity to make three more attempts, for a total of six opportunities.

The rain made its presence felt at the Stade de France and complicated the concluding rounds for all the throwers, who suffered from the slippery floor, so there were not many opportunities to improve their marks.

In his last three passes, the Mexican only managed to make the fifth throw valid for 20.29 meters, which placed him in eighth place.

The United States made it 1-2 in this event with Ryan Crouser who registered 22.90 meters and Joe Kovacs 22.15, the same mark as Jamaican Rajindra Campbell who took the bronze.

Uziel Muñoz, historic pass to the shot put final in Paris

A historic event took place this Friday in Mexican athletics, after Uziel Aarón Muñoz Galarza reached the final in the men's shot put event at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, becoming the first national athlete to achieve this.

After the feat of being among the best 12 exponents, the Chihuahua native, Pan American champion in Lima 2019, recalled that this achievement, as well as each attempt on the field, is dedicated to his brother, who passed away a few years ago.

"I am happy, content, with all my heart I can say that I fulfilled the promise at this moment, I managed to fulfill what I had promised seven years ago and here are the results, writing history in a fabulous setting, everything lends itself," he commented.

Uziel Muñoz is making his long-awaited Olympic debut in Paris 2024, which is marked as a historic event after scoring a mark of 21.22 meters, obtained in his third attempt.

With his result, the athlete will compete this Saturday, August 3, in the grand final at the Stade de France, a competition that was attended by the best 12 and where the Mexican placed tenth.

“This is my second international final, I hope to give my best performance and give my best, anything can happen, as long as I arrive and am in my best position to be able to throw, give my best,” he said.

“I prepared myself in the best way, I trained for this moment and history is being written, it has been a debut to write history, I rarely threw above 21 (meters) in the first three attempts, but anything can happen tomorrow,” he commented.

Uziel Muñoz advances to the shot put final at Paris 2024

The Chihuahua native Uziel Aarón Muñoz Galarza qualified for the grand final of the shot put at the Olympic Games after achieving a mark of 21.22 meters, in the qualifying rounds that took place this Friday, at the Stade de France.

Silver medalist at the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games, Muñoz made his Olympic debut in group B of the classification, in his first throw he registered 20.69 meters, in the second 20.43 and in his third and last opportunity he achieved the mark that put him in the fight for the medals.

Uziel Muñoz has a gold medal from the Central American and Caribbean Games in San Salvador 2023, as well as a bronze medal from the Pan American Games in Lima 2019.

The men's shot put final, to which the 12 best competitors qualified, will take place this Saturday at 11:35 a.m. Central Mexico time. Uziel Muñoz, who has the world ranking of number 16, will go on to the final competition in the number 10 order, with the number 1033.