SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- As he prepared for his final throw of the night, one last try to catch Finnish champion Arsi Harju, American shot putter Adam Nelson remembered the U.S. trials at Sacramento.

 It was there that he used his final throw to win the meet. Maybe he could do it again.

 "I was thinking, 'Sacramento, Sacramento, please, be like Sacramento,"' he said.

 No such luck.

 Nelson, the shot putter from Dartmouth, fouled on his final throw and had to settle for silver behind Harju's gold medal. The bronze went to another American, John Godina, who won the silver at Atlanta in 1996.

 For Nelson, it was the climax to a remarkable season in which he improved from 67 feet, 8 3/4 inches to 72-7. He reached 69-7 Friday night, behind Harju's 69-10 1/4. Godina was third with 69-6 3/4.

 "I'm not disappointed at all," Nelson said. "This was my first major meet, the biggest meet in the world. I'm really happy."

 Godina felt fortunate, too. He was a last-minute addition to the team replacing C.J. Hunter, who withdrew because of a knee injury.

 "I was very lucky just to get here," he said. "I would have liked to win. I could have. I should have. But you have to give all the credit in the world to the winner."

 Godina fouled on his first and last throws and uncorked his best throw of the night on his fifth try.

 American Andy Bloom was fourth with a best throw of 68-5 3/4 in the first round and it held up until Godina overtook him in the next-to-last round.

 Harju, the Finnish champion, used a huge second-round throw to win the competition. Wearing a red bandanna, the 26-year-old's big early throw stood up through the final four rounds on a breezy night.

 The heave overtook Nelson's longest throw, also in the second round. Nelson tried to respond but never quite got off another big one.

 "I'm still waiting," he said. "I was waiting for it. I thought it was going to come out. I started pushing it a little. When you start pushing it, it doesn't go as far as you'd like. I did my best. I'm pleased how it came out."

 Harju, who had a throw of 70-2 1/4 for a personal best in August when he won the Finnish national title, was third at the European Indoors in 1998. Last year, he reached the finals at the world championships in Seville with a throw of 65-1 3/4 in qualifying but fouled three times in the final.

 He becomes just Finland's second gold medalist in the shot since 1920 and fourth overall. Told he was not considered one of the favorites, he nodded. "That's true," he said.

 But the shot is improving in his country.

 "We have seven over 20 meters and two over 21," he said.

 He has said his ambition is to sit in a rocking chair in his old age with an Olympic gold medal over the fireplace.

 "Now," he said, "I will have to buy that rocking chair."