There was a good win for Michal Haratyk in Gliwice in Poland on Sunday (2) as Poland’s shot put star builds towards his bid for a global medal at the IAAF World Championships in Doha at the end of the season.
The double European champion – he triumphed both in Berlin last August and Glasgow in March – delivered his best performance of the outdoor season with a 21.79m in the men’s event (his previous furthest was 21.46m) to move to second on the 2019 European list while teammate Klaudia Kardasz took the women’s competition with 18.34m as she beat Türkiye’s Emel Dereli (18.09m).
Twelve months ago at the Bislett Games, Amalie Iuel lowered her Norwegian record in the 400m hurdles to 55.26 and she moves ever closer to the 55 second-barrier, winning over one lap in 55.15 for victory over home runner Joanna Linkiewicz who was second in 55.57.
There was also a breakthrough performance in the discus from Daria Zabawska, the daughter of three-time Olympic shot put finalist Krystyna. The European U23 discus silver medallist improved her four-year-old lifetime best from 60.23m to 62.36m in the sixth round to take the victory.
In a weekend of records, European triple jump champion Kristin Gierisch produced another landmark performance on Sunday to break the German outdoor record which had stood for almost eight years.
Competing in Garbsen on Sunday (2), Gierisch jumped 14.61m to overtake the mark of 14.57m which Katja Demut had achieved in 2011. Gierisch was forced to miss the European Indoor Championships due to an injury on the eve of the championships but she has showed she is in great shape on the road to the IAAF World Championships in Doha.
And as Gierisch won her event, there was also success in Garbsen for fellow European champion Mateusz Przybylko who won the high jump with 2.30m from Puerto Rico’s Luis Castro (2.28m).
There was also a British record on the roads in Borsky Mikulas, Slovakia, on Saturday as Callum Wilkinson won the 10km in 39:31 to take the scalp of Guatemala's former Olympic 20km race walk silver medallist Erick Barrondo in 39:52.
Another Irish sprint gold in Boras?
It is not long now until the Boras 2019 European Athletics U20 Championships and Ireland’s Aaron Sexton will head there in good form after breaking his 200m lifetime best on Saturday, winning in 20.69 at the Irish All Schools Championships in Tullamore.
Nobody else in his age-group in Europe has broken the 21 second-barrier thus far in 2019 and he also won the 100m in 10.43. In this form, Sexton could follow in the footsteps of Gina Akpe-Moses who won the European U20 title in Grosseto two years ago.
Another standout performance came from European U18 1500m and 3000m champion Sarah Healy who took a solo win in the 9:24.52 on the road to Boras where she will challenge for medals in her first year as an U20.
Highlights from the @irishlifehealth All Ireland Schools T&F Championships
— Athletics Ireland (@irishathletics) June 3, 2019
Sarah Healy (Holy Child Killiney) signing off her schools’ career to win the senior girls’ 3,000m in a new championship record of 9:24.52.
No Irish school girl had broken 9:43:00 previously pic.twitter.com/jPSAEIuRDq
Another sprinter who could make his mark in Sweden albeit at the Gavle 2019 European Athletics U23 Championships is Belgium’s Michael Obasuyi.
Fourth in the 110m hurdles at the IAAF World U20 Championships in Tampere last year, Obasuyi ran a personal best of 13.54 in Oordegem in his first season as a senior.
Elsewhere, at the street pole vault in Salon de Provence, France’s Valentin Lavillenie returned from injury to win with a 5.71m clearance, thus attaining the qualifying standard for the IAAF World Championships in Doha.
Meanwhile there were personal bests in both the decathlon and heptathlon at the Czech Championships in Zlin.
Jan Dolezal won the decathlon with 8142 points from Marek Lukas (7892 points) and 20-year-old Jana Novotna triumphed in the heptathlon with 5905 points from Katerina Dvorakova (5671 points).