A stacked men’s javelin line-up featuring some of the most exciting young talents in the event against the old guard will provide one of the highlights in the men’s events at the European Throwing Cup in Leiria, Portugal from 9-10 March.
Both days of the European Throwing Cup will be streamed live through the European Athletics YouTube channel and there will be extensive coverage across the European Athletics social media channels as well as the European Athletics website. Streaming begins at 9.45am local time (10.45am CET) on 9 March and 9.15am local time (10.15am) on 10 March.
This competition will provide our first glimpse of the German wunderkind Max Dehning since he added a staggering eleven metres to his lifetime best with a world leading mark of 90.20m at the German Winter Throwing Championships in Halle, a performance which left everyone - including Dehning himself - dumbfounded.
“I'm wondering that too. I've been sick for the past week and haven't been able to train properly. I really wanted to take part in this competition. I wouldn't have expected that I would have achieved such a top result.
“Because of the illness I didn't feel fit. My legs are still a bit weak, which is why I just wanted to do the competition at first. I'm really happy about the fact that 90 is in front of the decimal point and eleven meters above my personal best - I only have a best performance of 79 meters [79.13 m]. The second attempt was also over 85 meters. That was quite a good series,” said Dehning on that performance in a recent interview with Leichtathletik.de.
The line-up also features many of Dehning’s contemporaries, including Hungary’s 19-year-old Gyorgyi Herczeg - who beat Dehning for the European U20 title and also set a European U20 record of 84.98m last summer - and Ukraine’s Artur Felfner, Herczeg’s predecessor as European U20 champion and the winner of the U23 competition last year
However, the event has lost a speck of its lustre with the late withdrawal of 2017 world champion Johannes Vetter from Germany who holds the European Throwing Cup event record with 92.70m from 2018.
Other notable entrants include Poland’s Marcin Krukowski (89.55m PB), Belgium’s Timothy Herman (87.35m) and home favourite Leandro Ramos (84.78m) who won the javelin title on home soil in Leiria twelve months ago.
Fabbri and Weir renew their friendly shot put rivalry
Italian training partners Leonardo Fabbri and Zane Weir, who finished third and fourth respectively at the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Glasgow last weekend, look set to battle it out for shot put honours in Leiria.
Fabbri largely had the better of Weir during their clashes in the indoor season but the latter has an excellent record at the European Throwing Cup, winning two years ago with an event record of 21.99m before finishing third last year. Could we see the first ever 22 metre-plus throw at the European Throwing Cup this weekend?
And regardless of who wins, there will be no animosity or bad blood between the two training partners who are two of Italy’s major gold medal hopes at the Roma 2024 European Athletics Championships from 7-12 June.
“We have a beautiful relationship. We are friends in everyday life. We stimulate each other and try to take something from each other every day. In Rome we can compete for the title or a double. It will be beautiful. I hope this relationship will lead us to one day be the Messi and Ronaldo of the shot put,” said Fabbri in a recent interview.
The most likely candidates to spoil the Italian party are Luxembourg’s Bob Bertemes and Mesud Pezer from Bosnia & Herzegovina who have season’s bests of 21.71m and 21.42m respectively from the indoor season.
The men’s hammer also boasts a deep field replete with European talent including Hungary’s European silver medallist Bence Halasz who will be targeting his third successive victory at the European Throwing Cup.
His main rival is likely to be Ukraine’s Mykhailo Kokhan who makes his long awaited debut in the senior event having won the U23 competition three times, including in 2019 when he was only 18.
And in the absence of Slovenia’s Kristjan Ceh and Sweden’s reigning Olympic and world champion Daniel Stahl, Olympic silver medallist Simon Pettersson looks set to emerge from the shadow of his more illustrious teammate in the men’s discus.
As well as senior competitions, there will also be U23 competitions in all events. The pick of the action includes an intriguing head-to-head between Germany’s Steven Richter and Ukraine’s reigning European U18 and U20 champion Mykhailo Brudin in the discus while Kosovo’s Muhamet Ramadani will be seeking back-to-back titles in the men’s U23 shot put.
Steven Mills for European Athletics