Sedyuk, Marghieva and Perkovic among the Under 23 stars in Arles
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| European junior Discus champion Sandra Perkovic of Croatia will go in as one of the hot favourites for the title at the 10th European Cup Winter Throwing meet in Arles, France, this weekend. |
Russian discus thrower Nikolay Sedyuk and Moldovan hammer thrower Zalina Marghieva, two champions from the 2009 European Athletics Under 23 Championships, are still eligible to compete in the category and have entered.
However, plenty of attention in Arles will be on Croatia's 2009 European Athletics Junior Championships women's Discus gold medallist Sandra Perkovic, who smashed her national record with 66.85m earlier this month.
Perković is now more then 10 metres better than any of her 10 rivals on paper but the contest will reunite her with her fellow medallist from Novi Sad, Serbia, last summer, Germany's Julia Fischer and Portugal's Irina Rodrigues, who were second and third respectively behind Perković.
The men's Discus potentially should be a lot closer with Sedyuk likely to be challenged by the Ukraine's Ivan Hryshyn, who got the silver medal behind his Russian opponent in Kaunas last summer.
The pair have a long rivalry which stretches back to their days as a junior, they finished first and second at the 2007 European Athletics Junior Championships, and are the only two men to have thrown over 60m.
Germany's Gordon Wolf, the 2009 European Athletics Junior Championships silver medallist, is also in the field.
Marghieva, 22, is the only women in the Hammer to have thrown over 70 metres and can boast of a best of 71.56m but there will be a lot of interest in the progress of Hungary's Jenny Ozorai, who is still only 19.
Ozorai was second at the European Juniors and has already thrown a personal best of 65.00m at the Hungarian winter throwing championships last month.
The men's Shot Put brings together three men who have gone beyond 18 metres with Belarus' Siarhei Bakhar possibly being the favourite having produced a personal best of 19.21m indoors last month.
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Javier Cienfuegos of Spain, a strong medal contender in the under 23 Hammer field. |
"This Cup will be a new experience for me as I'm competing in the Under 23 category, in the two previous editions; I was in with the seniors. I'm very motivated because I think I can win. This winter there has been some ups and downs, some pains and flu, but I think by Sunday that I'll be100 per cent," said the Madrid-based student on Thursday.
The Spanish prodigy is also looking to make amends for last summer's under-par performance at the European Athletics Junior Championships, when he finished third.
The winner that day was the Ukraine's Andriy Martynyuk, who will also be competing in Arles.
Russia's Roman Avramenko is the top name in the men's Javelin, the 2007 European Athletics Junior Championships silver medallist has already thrown 79.07m outdoors this winter.
The Netherlands' Melissa Boekelman starts as the clear favourite for the women's Shot Put with the former world and European junior champion the only thrower to have gone over 18 metres this year, with a personal best indoors of 18.02m.
However, Belarus's Alena Hryshko and Germany's Sophie Kleeberg, the gold and bronze medallists at last year's European Athletics Junior Championships, should keep the Dutch woman on her toes.
Serbian's Tatjana Jelaca provided possibly the female highlight of the European Juniors by winning her country's only gold medal in Novi Sad when she took the Javelin title with a national record on the last day of competition and she will look to repeat her feat in Arles.
However, Jelaca faces strong competition from her predecessor as European junior champion, the Ukraine's Vira Rebryk, the world junior record holder.
Rebryk, who was also the 2009 European Athletics Under 23 Championships silver medallist, has already thrown 62.40m this winter, her second best effort ever.
Visit the event page: 10th European Cup Winter Throwing
