Polish shot putter repeats as Olympic champion

Poland’s Tomasz Majewski became the first man to defend his Olympic title in the men’s shot put in 56 years on Friday as track and field began.

Majewski threw a season-best 71 feet, 10 inches to match the title he won in Beijing.

The most recent man to win consecutive Olympic shot put titles was American Parry O’Brien, who took gold in 1952 and ’56.

Germany’s David Storl won the silver medal with a toss of 71-8 3/4.

American Reese Hoffa took the bronze at 69-8 and teammate Christian Cantwell was fourth at 69-6 1.4.

Britain’s Jessica Ennis closed out the first day of the Olympic heptathlon by running the 200 meters in a personal-record 22.83 seconds to take a 184-point lead with three events left.

Ennis, who opened the Olympic track meet by running the 100-meter hurdles in a heptathlon record of 12.54 seconds, returned for the night session and picked up where she left off.

Read more: http://www.mercurynews.com/olympics/ci_21229990/olympics-polish-shot-putter-repeats-olympic-champion