Karla Hergotić stepped into the circle at Olomouc with five throws behind her and one left. On the sixth, she released the shot to 8.73 metres. The mark broke a world record in the women's shot put F62 that had stood since 2001, and it broke it by more than three metres.
The record fell on the opening day of the World Para Athletics Grand Prix in Olomouc, on 2 July 2026. The meeting was the first women-only Grand Prix of its kind, staged over two days at the TJ Lokomotiva Olomouc stadium, and it drew Paralympic names in strong form ahead of the season's closing championships. The women's shot put F62 sat within that programme. Hergotić built through her series and left the decisive effort until last. In the official results her name carries the letters WR, the marking that confirms a world record.
The distance itself tells the scale of the leap. A benchmark that had held for a quarter of a century was not edged past but cleared by a margin of metres. It came on the final attempt, the throw with no throw after it, when the series is closing and the room for error is gone. Hergotić found her best in that moment.
A career measured in steps
The result reads as the summit of a steady climb rather than a sudden arrival. Croatian reporting framed the throw as one of the biggest successes of her career and a mark of continued progress on the international stage, achieved on the strength of consistent form and dedicated work with her coaches. For Croatian para athletics it stands among a small number of world-record performances, and it placed Hergotić on the front page of the national federation.
She competes for her club and for Croatia, and this was the throw that carried both onto the world stage. The performance represented the best result of her career to that point, a distance beyond all her previous international bests. The measure of an athlete is often not the first good series but the one that follows it, higher. Olomouc was that series.
The Grand Prix moved on to its other stories, its young champions and its returning stars. Hergotić left with a number that now sits at the top of her event, hers to defend.
A record that outlived two decades has a new owner. Karla Hergotić wrote her name against it on a single throw.
