European U20 shot put champion Jorinde Van Klinken from the Netherlands made a massive breakthrough in the discus with a world leading performance at the USATF Throws Festival in Tucson, Arizona on Saturday (22).
The American-based Dutchwoman had already set lifetime bests of 62.58m and 65.94m earlier this month but Van Klinken added a staggering four metres, breaking the revered 70 metre-line for the first time in her career at the age of 21 with another national record of 70.22m.
That effort was the world’s longest throw in three years and Van Klinken becomes only the second European thrower to broach this barrier this century after reigning Olympic and five-time European champion Sandra Perkovic from Croatia.
Her throw was also the furthest by a European at U23 level in more than three decades. Van Klinken moves to fifth on the all-time European U23 lists behind East Germans Ilke Wyludda (74.56m), Irina Meszynski (73.36m), Evelin Jahl (70.72m) and Bulgaria's Tsvetanka Khristova (70.64m).
Van Klinken has won medals in the shot put at both the World and European U20 Championships although she is yet to win a major medal in the discus. Van Klinken surprisingly exited in qualifying in her primary event at the 2019 European Athletics U20 Championships in Boras before rebounding with gold in the shot put.
Also on Saturday (22), Sweden’s 2019 world discus champion Daniel Stahl made a superb start to the season at the Victor Svanesohn Memorial meeting in Helsingborg, Sweden.
With his first throw Stahl reached a world leading 69.71m and followed it up with 69.04m in round five. Second was fellow Swede and training partner Simon Pettersson with 66.18m and Iceland's Gudni Valur Gudnason finished third with 64.83m.
"I will continue to work on my technique with my coach. That's what we do now, then it's just thunder in June and July," said Stahl.