European indoor silver medallist Christina Schwanitz produced a notable season’s opener in a high quality shot put competition at the Halle Throws Meeting on Saturday (1).
Competing for the first time since the Glasgow 2019 European Athletics Indoor Championships, Schwanitz went out to a European-leading mark of 19.23m to become the first European thrower to surpass the 19-metre mark outdoors in 2019.
“I’m very satisfied. I did not think I would throw so far today. It was a lot of fun,” said Schwanitz, adding she was struggling with a knee problem during the indoor season.
Schwanitz also said she still isn’t in top form yet due to the late staging of the IAAF World Championships in Doha which begin on 27 September. “You cannot be in good shape now and keep the shape until October. But I'm looking forward to the World Championships because it will be nice and warm.”
Behind Schwanitz, Fanny Roos increased her Swedish record from 18.68m to 18.88m. This was her fourth national record of the year after improving her Swedish indoor record three times this winter: 18.33m, 18.35m and 18.61m.
Reigning world hammer champion Pawel Fajdek from Poland was also in winning form in Halle. He went out to 79.04m - a mark which has only been surpassed by Fajdek himself in 2019 - to defeat Greece’s Mihalis Anastasakis (75.16m) by a clear margin.
After setting a lifetime best of 89.06m last week, Bernhard Seifert took another good win in the javelin with 83.05m.
In the age-group competitions on Sunday 92), Croatia’s Matija Tolj, 19, surpassed the 60-metre line once again with a lifetime best of 60.87m and Slovenia’s Kristjan Ceh improved to 63.18m to win the U23 men’s discus.
While Tolj and Ceh will be targeting medals at the Gavle 2019 European Athletics U23 Championships, Greece’s Ellina Tzenggo is aiming for the Boras 2019 European Athletics U20 Championships in July.
Tzenggo, who is the reigning Youth Olympic champion, is still eligible for youth-level competition and the 16-year-old won the U18 javelin in Halle with 61.80m. She will throw with the senior weight implement in Boras and she has already set a Greek U20 record this year with 59.42m - a mark which would have won gold at the 2017 European U20 Championships by four metres.