Portuguese shot putter Francisco Belo (© Getty Images)
Francisco Belo, Fanny Roos and Ama Pipi were among the many athletes to break a meeting record at the Kladno hází a Kladenské Memoriály – a World Athletics Continental Tour Bronze meeting – in Kladno on Tuesday (15).
Belo launched his shot out to an outdoor PB of 21.27m in the first round of the men’s shot put. The 30-year-old from Portugal didn’t improve on that, but had two other throws close to 21 metres, 20.98m and 20.81m. European indoor champion Tomas Stanek threw a season’s best of 21.00m to take second place.
Like Belo in the men’s event, Roos led the women’s shot put from the first round. The Swede opened with 17.56m, then improved in each of the next three rounds, throwing 18.48m, 18.52m and 19.34m. Her top mark added one centimetre to the national record she set at the weekend. Germany’s Katharina Maisch was second with 17.82m.
Britain’s Ama Pipi was the top performer on the track. The European indoor 4x400m silver medallist, who broke 52 seconds for the first time last weekend with 51.53, ran another controlled and well-executed race in the 400m to win in 51.08. Lada Vondrova of the Czech Republic was second in a season’s best of 51.45, the second-fastest time of her career.
Kojo Musah won the men’s 100m in 10.17 (1.3m/s), not only smashing his PB but also taking down the Danish record.
Musah went on to clock a PB of 20.62 in the 200m, finishing second to Gediminas Truskauskas. The Lithuanian won in 20.53 (0.3m/s), just 0.05 shy of the national record he set last weekend.
In the women’s sprints, Italy’s Irene Siragusa won a 100m and 200m double in 11.41 (0.7m/s) and 22.99 (1.1m/s). Vondrova notched up another runner-up finish in the 200m, clocking a PB of 23.35.
Moldova’s Adrian Mardare was a comfortable winner of the men’s javelin; any of his top four marks would have been sufficient to win. His top mark of 83.82m came in the penultimate round and was more than enough to see off the challenge of 2013 world champion Vitezslav Vesely (81.30m).
In the women’s contest, Latvia’s Lina Muza shot up the standings in the penultimate round with a winning throw of 62.17m. South Africa’s Jo-Ane Van Dyk, the early leader, responded with a PB of 61.19m in the final round but it wasn’t enough to reclaim the lead.
Elsewhere in the throws, Colombia’s Mauricio Ortega won the men’s discus with a meeting record of 64.28m, beating Samoa’s Alex Rose by one centimetre. Shanice Craft won the women’s discus with 61.62m and Venezuela’s Rosa Rodriguez took the women’s hammer with 70.52m.
Meeting records were also broken in all three middle-distance events. Algeria’s Mohamed Belachir won the men’s 800m in 1:46.01, Lithuania’s Simas Bertasius triumphed in the men’s 1500m in 3:37.97 and Hungary’s Keri Bianca Bartha held off Ireland’s Siofra Cleirigh Buttner to win the women’s 800m by 0.01 in 2:01.77.
Jon Mulkeen for World Athletics
