Kiwi shot putter Tom Walsh has missed the podium at the world athletics championships in Budapest, settling for fourth place in the men's final.
Up against American rivals Ryan Crouser and Joe Kovacs, Walsh's best effort of 22.05m saw him miss out on the bronze medal by just seven centimetres.
Despite two blood clots in his left leg, American Crouser still managed a championship-record throw of 23.51m to take gold, just five centimetres short of breaking the world record he set earlier this year.
"That was a tough one," said Crouser. "The last throw was testament to all the hard work and dedication over the last year.
"The last few days have been hard, so with all that has happened, it was a phenomenal throw. It's been the most stressful 20 days I've ever had.
"The week before I was supposed to leave, I woke up with calf pain and we thought I had a partial tear in my calf. We treated it like that, but after 10 days of no improvement, we had a doctor look at it and he said 'you have two blood clots'.
"Luckily, I had a great medical team working with me and they got me safe to fly, so it felt like a relief just to get here, even though I didn't have proper training or preparation.
"After all that, it was the best performance of my life, given the health issues, the stress and all of it. It wasn't quite a world record, but to me, it was."
Italian Leonardo Fabbri took silver with a personal best throw of 22.34m, while Kovacs was third, throwing 22.12m to take bronze ahead of Walsh.
The result was the second time in as many world championships that Walsh - the 2017 world champion - has missed out on medal, after also placing fourth at Eugene, USA last year.
Kiwi compatriot Jacko Gill finished sixth, with a best throw of 21.76m.
Meanwhile, Sam Tanner negotiated a pedestrian heat to reach the 1500m semi-finals, finishing fourth in 3m 46.93s. With the first six progressing from each heat, the Kiwi found space on the inside, as the bunched field sprinted to the line in the slowest of the four preliminaries.
