 Complete the following phrase:  His international career started with a fifteenth place at the 1992 World Junior Championships. The following year he took his first national shot put title. In 1994 he threw past the 19-metre mark for the first time, with 19.06 metres achieved in April in his birth city. At his first World Championships, in 1997, he reached the final and placed tenth. He only managed one valid throw. In 1998 he won the gold medal at the 