The opening day of the 15th European Cup Winter Throwing saw Estonia’s Martin Kupper put down an impressive marker.
Kupper did not make the cut in the discus final at the European Athletics Championships in Zurich last summer when he ended up with a best of 60.89m and finished ninth.
But in Leiria on Saturday he produced a second round personal best of 66.67m to take victory with the best throw in the world this year.
He beat Lithuania’s Andrius Gudzius with 65.51m and Viktor Butenko, of Russia, with 65.44m.
Gudzius led after the first round with 62.62m from Kupper with 62.60m before the Estonian then launched his best effort and finished his series with 62.69m.
A year ago Poland’s world champion Pawel Fajdek beat Hungary’s Olympic champion Krisztian Pars in the hammer in this Cup at the same Portuguese arena but when it came to Zurich, the positions were reversed.
On Saturday, Pars took the title in an event where it was very much his day as he led from the first throw as Fajdek did not have the best of competitions.
Pars, who began with 77.66m, triumphed with 79.24m from the fourth round as Fajdek followed his 74.62m and 76.19m with four successive fouls with Moldovan Serghei Marghiev third with 73.84m.
It was a good day for Hungarian hammer throwers as Bence Pastor won the under-23 event with 72.94m, a personal best.
Martina Ratej left it late to steal victory in the women’s javelin as it looked like Germany’s Linda Stahl would win the event for the second year in a row.
She led with 62.12m from round five but with her last throw, Ratej reached 62.43m with Germany’s Katharina Molitor third with 62.08m.
Belarusian Yulia Leantsiuk won the shot put with a world-leading 18.56m as she beat Hungary’s Anita Marton, the newly-crowned European Athletics indoor champion, who reached a best of 17.59m but it was the women’s under-23 competition which caught the eye.
Emil Dereli, the European Athletics junior champion, twice broke the national under-23 record as she won with 17.45m having earlier hit a distance of 17.21m. In fourth place, Sweden’s Fanny Roos also broke the national under-23 record with 16.39m.
Croatian Martin Markovic won the men’s under-23 javelin with 58.75m and Germany’s Christin Hussong took the women’s event with 60.91m.