Local shot put star Tomáš Stanek provided the highlight of the Hvězdy v Nehvizdech World Athletics Indoor Tour Silver meeting in the Czech town of Nehvizdy when he improved his own meeting record to 21.45m on Tuesday (31).
The reigning European indoor champion, who will be looking to retain his title at the Istanbul 2023 European Athletics Indoor Championships between the 2-5 March, was under pressure throughout the competition from Nigeria’s Chukwu Enekwechi, who equalled his indoor personal best of 21.20m to take the lead in the third round before, three throws later, Stanek went one centimetre further to lead at the halfway point in the contest.
Enekwechi couldn’t improve though over the second half of the competition and, with victory assured, Stanek – a busy man despite the calendar not having yet turned over to February with three competitions under his belt in the last 11 days including a world-leading 21.69m when winning in Kladno on Saturday –unleashed his best effort of the night with the last attempt of the competition to clinch his fourth consecutive victory in Nehvizdy.
Serbia’s Armin Sinancevic completed the podium with his second round 20.93m effort, one of only two valid attempts.
Saut en hauteur : Thomas Carmoy s’impose pour sa rentrée, à Nehvizdy, avec 2,25m https://t.co/m6uWFvacbr pic.twitter.com/EadMUzg7Kc
— DH les Sports + (@ladh) January 31, 2023
Thomas Carmoy, from Belgium, took the high jump title in Nehvizdy for the third year in succession.
In a surprisingly low-key contest considering the quality of the field the organisers had assembled, the 2019 European U20 champion was the only man clear over 2.25m.
He had two attempts at equalling his personal best of 2.28m and improving his own meeting record having jumped 2.27m 12 months ago, and came respectively close with his second attempt before one final audacious try at 2.30m which also saw him bring the bar down.
In the women’s shot put, European champion Jessica Schilder is starting to get into her stride and the Dutch thrower sent her 4kg implement out to 19.12m in the fourth round to take the lead.
However, she was overtaken by Canada’s in-form Sarah Mitton in the following round when world leader in the event reached 19.29m and the former had to settle for second place behind the woman who had actually finished one place behind her when Schilder won the bronze medal at last summer’s World Athletics Championships before she went on to triumph in Munich.
Full results from the meeting can be found here.
A full replay of the meeting with English-language commentary can be found here.