The strength of European field events once more came to the fore on a superb afternoon and evening of athletics at the Istvan Gyulai Memorial in front of a capacity crowd in Szekesfehervar, Hungary, on Tuesday (9).
Daniel Stahl is making so many impressive statements in this World Championships year and this time he achieved arguably his best discus win of the season in the first European Athletics Premium Permit meeting of 2019.
The Swedish star, who will be determined to make that step up from two summers of winning silver, triumphed with a fourth round throw of 68.77m in front of the strongest group assembled for the event this summer as Lithuania’s world and European champion Andrius Gudzius made his international season’s debut after injury.
Gudzius has beaten Stahl to the top spot on the podium both at the IAAF World Championships in London in 2017 and the European Athletics Championships in Berlin in 2018 but he was only fourth this time. His best effort came in the last of his legal throws in the third round with 65.77m, building on earlier throws of 65.09m and 64.94m.
It was quite a competition as Poland’s Piotr Malachowski set the standard with a season’s best of 67.23m to lead in the opening round but then as Stahl reached 67.61m after an opening foul, Jamaica’s Fedrick Dacres went six centimetres further to be in front after the second round.
Stahl reacted with a third round 66.40m before securing victory with 68.77m in round four and then after a foul, finishing with 68.51m.
Ivanyuk clears a world leading 2.33m in the high jump in Szekesfehervar
Bronze medallist in Berlin last summer, Ilya Ivanyuk showed that he will be eyeing a medal again this year at the IAAF World Championships in Doha by producing the world lead of 2.33m.
After going clear at 2.30m on the third attempt, Ivanyuk then saw the bar raised to 2.33m. He had a personal best of 2.31m but that was impressively replaced as he went over first time to beat Ukraine’s Andriy Protsenko who was second on countback on 2.28m from Mathew Sawe from Kenya.
Poland’s Pawel Fajdek (80.87m) might be second on the 2019 world hammer list this year to his teammate Wojciech Nowicki (81.74m) but the three-time world champion had the better of the European champion on this occasion. Fajdek won with 80.49m from Hungary’s Bence Halasz with 77.36m with Nowicki third with 76.60m.
In the women’s event, France’s Alexandra Tavernier reached 72.84m to beat Poland’s Joanna Fiodorow with 71.72m.
Only one centimetre separated the first two in the women’s long jump but Serbia’s Ivana Spanovic had to settle for second with 6.80m as former Olympic silver medallist Yelena Sokolova secured a fine win with 6.81m on a good night for Hungary’s Anasztazia Nguyen who set a lifetime best of 6.70m to finish third.
In the men’s triple jump, Portugal’s Pedro Pablo Pichardo was third with 17.29m as Olympic and world champion Christian Taylor reached 17.93m with fellow US athlete Will Claye in second with 17.66m.
Full results here.
Rohler defeats Hofmann - but only just - in the javelin in Luzern
A taster of what could be in store at the IAAF World Championships in Doha saw Thomas Rohler defeat German teammate Andreas Hofmann in a thrilling javelin competition at the Spitzen Leichtathletik in Luzern, a European Athletics Premium Permit meeting, on Tuesday (9) night.
Just like at the European Athletics Championships in Berlin, the outcome was Rohler beating Hofmann but this time it was not decided until a sensational final round.
Rohler will be the defending champion in Doha yet it was Hofmann who looked like he was on his way to securing victory after taking the lead in the opening round with 84.71m as his rival fouled.
Hofmann’s next two efforts of 82.25m and 84.28m preceded fouls as Rohler battled to overtake him but could not get close enough, with 83.94m, 82.27m, 82.90m and then 84.65m.
And so the final round and what drama as Rohler launched a brilliant throw to take the lead with 86.51m. He raised his right arm as it landed as he knew it was good, but Hofmann was still left.
Incredibly, he then produced his best of the night - 86.45m - but it meant only second. He stood at the end of the runway with hands on his head knowing how close he had come.
In the women’s javelin, Australian Kelsey-Lee Barber won with a final round personal best of 67.70m ahead of Tatsiana Khaladovich from Belarus (66.18m) with Germany’s Christin Hussong, the woman who succeeded her to European gold in Berlin, third with 64.62m and Croatia’s Olympic champion Sara Kolak fourth with 64.35m.
After taking the first two places in the men’s javelin, it was first and third for Germany in the women’s 100m as Gina Luckenkemper won in 11.20 - the same time as Jamaica’s Natalliah Whyte in second 0 with Tatjana Pinto third in 11.21.
France’s Jimmy Vicaut was second in the men’s 100m in 10.11 won by South African Akani Simbine in 10.06 and in the women’s 200m, Switzerland’s Mujinga Kambundji was third in 22.90, the same time as Canadian Crystal Emmanuel as Bahamian Tynia Gaither won in 22.69.
It was a memorable night for Slovenia’s Tina Sutej as she equalled her national pole vault record of 4.61m for second behind Canada’s Alysha Newman (4.66m) with Sweden’s Angelica Bengtsson (4.56m) in third with 4.56m.
And the home crowd had much to cheer about in the men’s 3000m as Switzerland’s Julien Wanders broke his personal best to finish third in 7:43.62 in a race won by Ethiopian Tadese Worku (7:43.24) ahead of Kenyan Edward Cheserek (7:43.47).
Wanders, however, just missed the long-standing Swiss record of 7:41.00 which has stood to Markus Ryffel since 1979.
Full results here.