A glittering array of Olympic, World and European medallists are set to launch their 2024 campaigns in earnest at next weekend’s European Athletics Throwing Cup in Leiria, Portugal.
Both days of the European Throwing Cup on 9-10 March will be streamed live through the European Athletics YouTube channel and will be accompanied by live results on the European Athletics website.
Final entries have been confirmed for the event including 301 athletes (152 men, 149 women) from 41 countries.
The annual event offers a fascinating insight how many of the continent’s finest throwers have fared during their winter training. Frequently, it provides some standout throws of the year and breakthrough performances from developing athletes.
Record breaking German javelin throwers
Former world champion Johannes Vetter returns to the scene of one of his greatest performances, having set a new championship record of 92.70m in the men’s javelin at this event in Leiria six years ago.
He is also the second-longest javelin thrower of all -time with a staggering 97.76m in Silesia in 2020. In Leiria, he will be joined by another record-setting German.
Only 19, Max Dehning recently became the youngest man ever to throw 90 metres, when he sent his spear soaring to 90.20m at the German Winter Throwing Championships in Halle on Sunday (25). It will be intriguing to see if last year’s European U20 silver medallist can replicate that sensational form in the international arena.
In the women’s javelin, after an injury-curtailed couple of years, Poland’s Olympic silver medallist Maria Andrejczyk would love to rekindle the sort of form that saw her set a championship record of 71.40m three years ago in Split, Croatia.
But the pre-event favourite is defending champion and current European gold medallist Elina Tzengko of Greece. Serbia’s European U20 champion Adriana Vilagoš is also likely to contend.
In form Schilder set for shot
In the shot put, European champion Jessica Schilder will arrive in Portugal in the form of her life. She set a national record of 20.31m at the recent Dutch Indoor Championships in Apeldoorn and will be hopeful of translating that type of distance to the outdoors.
In the men’s event, Italy’s World silver medallist Leonardo Fabbri and European Athletics Indoor champion Zane Weir will be the men to beat.
Strong hammer fields
Both the men’s and women’s hammer competitions have impressive depth of quality. The women’s event reunites the three medallists from the Munich 2022 European Athletics Championships in the form of Romania’s Bianca Ghelber (gold), Poland’s Ewa Rozanska (silver) and Italy’s Sara Fantini (bronze).
Fantini will be seeking to defend the title having won in Leiria last year. But Finland’s Silja Kosonen could be the one they all have to watch.
Following an impressive victory on home soil at the European Athletics U23 Championships in Espoo, Finland last year, she went on to place a highly creditable 5th at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest. Now stepping into the senior ranks, she could be set to make a big impact this year.
In the men’s competition, twice European U23 gold medallist Mykhaylo Kokhan of Ukraine and Hungary’s world bronze medallist Bence Halász lead the entries.
Kokhan triumphed in Leiria last year and will be hoping 2024 will be the year he steps onto the podium at a senior championships, having placed 4th in the Olympics and 5th at both the World Athletics Championships and European Athletics Championships in recent years.
The discus fields are headed by Olympic silver medallist Simon Pettersson of Sweden in the men’s event and Germany’s three-times European bronze medallist Shanice Craft in the women’s event.
Talented U23 entrants
The U23 competitions are also teeming with talent. The men’s discus event pits last year’s winner Steven Richter of Germany, who won last year’s event with a superb 64.23m against European U20 champion Mykhailo Brudin of Ukraine.
Meanwhile, the women’s hammer features Italy’s Rachele Mori the 2022 World U20 champion and the men’s hammer field includes Orestis Ntousakis the 2021 World U20 silver medallist. The Greek athlete has already landed a 73.23m throw this year.
In total, there are 301 athletes (152 men, 149 women) from 41 countries entered for the event.