Sweden’s Vanessa Kamga won a highly competitive women’s discus with a world lead of 63.25m to close proceedings on the second day of the European Throwing Cup in Nicosia, Cyprus on Sunday (16) evening.
The Olympic fifth-placer trailed Portugal’s Liliana Ca who had initially set a world lead of 62.66m in the third round but the Swede ameliorated that mark in the fifth round, taking the lead with 63.25m before concluding her competition with a mark of 62.86m.
Kamga showed good composure after a long and eventually successful discussion with the officials following her fourth round throw, eventually measured at 61.45m, which was initially ruled to have missed the throwing sector.
Germany’s Marike Steinacker, who finished one place ahead of Kamga in the Olympic final in fourth, comprised the podium in third with 61.57m. Italy’s Daisy Osakue also recorded a best mark of 61.57m although the German made the podium by virtue of a better second attempt - 61.13m to 58.53m.
Halasz hammers home victory
Hungary’s Olympic and European silver medallist Bence Halasz set the standard in the first round of the men’s hammer with 78.75m which remained the winning throw.
In an unpredictable competition which saw many throwers struggle with their footing in the throwing circle on another hot and dry day in the GSP Stadium, Halasz only produced two valid throws but both marks - 78.75m and 78.23m - would have sufficed for victory.
Czechia’s Volodymyr Myslyvchuk had the distinction of being the only man in the 16-athlete competition to set a lifetime best and his third round mark of 77.98m took him up into silver ahead of Norway’s Thomas Mardal won bronze with 77.43m.
World leader Yann Chaussinand - whose father David won the inaugural edition of this competition in 2001 - had to settle for fourth with 77.16m with last year’s winner and Olympic bronze medallist Mykhaylo Kokhan from Ukraine slightly out of sorts, finishing sixth with 76.11m.
Halasz was presented with his medal by 2008 Olympic heptathlon champion Nataliya Dobrynska from Ukraine who now resides in Cyprus and also serves on the World Athletics Council.
European javelin lead for Kyriazis
The men’s javelin followed a similar pattern with Greece’s Ioannis Kyriazis launching a European leading mark of 84.38m with his second attempt before foregoing his last four attempts.
Luckily for Kyriazis, that mark went unthreatened for the remainder of the competition although the destination of the other medals was only fully decided in the last round.
Italy’s Giovanni Frattini won silver with a season’s best of 82.78m while former European U20 and U23 champion Cyprian Mrzyglod secured bronze by virtue of a sixth round effort of 82.46m to displace Finland’s Eemil Porvari who set a European U23 lead of 81.55m on his fourth attempt.
Nick Ponzio succeeded Italian teammate Zane Weir with victory in the men’s shot put with 20.60m ahead of Germany’s Silas Ristl who was rewarded with a lifetime best of 20.27m in the third round, the only two throwers to surpass the 20 metre-mark.
Germany topped the medal table in emphatic style in Nicosia, winning four gold medals and 10 in total ahead of Italy, Ireland and Sweden respectively. A total of 20 countries made the medal table in Nicosia.
The 2026 and 2027 editions of the European Throwing Cup will also be held in Nicosia.