As has become&nbsp;traditional, the men's and women's hammer events will be held the day before the main meeting at Ostrava Golden Spike meeting, which is part of the IAAF World Challenge and IAAF Hammer Throw Challenge, on 25 May.The organisers announced on Friday (10) an impressive array of top throwing talent including Poland&rsquo;s world record-holder and European champion Anita Wlodarczyk, Germany&rsquo;s former world record-holder Betty Heidler, Slovakia&rsquo;s Martina Hrasnova and Poland&rsquo;s Johanna Fiodorow, the latter duo taking the silver and bronze medals at the European Championships in Zurich last summer.From further afield, Asian Games winner Wang Zheng will also be making a trip to the Czech city. On the men&rsquo;s side, Hungary&rsquo;s Olympic and European champion Krisztian Pars will face his familiar foe, Poland&rsquo;s world champion Pawel Fajdek. Since they first met in 2009, they have competed against each other no fewer than 36 times to date, the score standing 28-8 to Pars although Fajdek memorably beat his rival to the world title in Moscow two years ago.Russia&rsquo;s Sergey Litvinov, Tajikistan&rsquo;s Dilshod Nazarov and Egypt&rsquo;s Mostafa Al-Gamal are also in the men&rsquo;s field. The meeting organisers believe that both the meeting records &ndash; Pars' 82.28m and Heidler's 78.07m, both from 2012 &ndash; could be threatened.Organisers for the IAAF

As has become traditional, the men's and women's hammer events will be held the day before the main meeting at Ostrava Golden Spike meeting, which is part of the IAAF World Challenge and IAAF Hammer Throw Challenge, on 25 May.

European champions Wlodarczyk and Pars lead the hammer fields in Ostrava

Ten years after winning her first African title – the first major title of her career – South African javelin thrower Sunette Viljoen won another gold medal in Marrakech on Wednesday (13), the fourth day of action at the African Championships.Of the four African titles she has now won, this was her most impressive. She opened her campaign by breaking the championship record with 63.39m. She then added almost another two metres to that with a season’s best of 65.32m.After two throws in the 57-metre region, she rounded out her series with 62.23m and 65.21m. Her nearest opponent, Ghana’s Mary Nartey, finished almost 13 metres adrift.Viljoen, who took bronze at the 2011 IAAF World Championships and holds the African record with 69.35m, now has more javelin gold medals from the African Championships than any other athlete, male or female, in the 35-year history of the event.It also gave Viljoen some minor consolation after she recently missed out on winning what would have been a third Commonwealth title, eventually settling for the silver medal in Glasgow.Chepkirui and Mokoena top the podium againOne of the themes of this year’s African Championships has been athletes following up their recent Commonwealth titles with another gold medal in Marrakech. Tonight, Kenya’s Joyce Chepkirui and South Africa’s Godfrey Mokoena continued that trend.In the women’s 10,000m, Kenya fielded the same three women who filled the podium at the Commonwealth Games: Chepkirui, Florence Kiplagat and Emily Chebet. Chepkirui once again came out on top, only this time it was much closer with just 0.01 separating her from Chebet, the two-time world cross-country champion.Kiplagat was a non-starter, leaving the way clear for Ethiopia’s Belaynesh Oljira to replicate her finish from last year’s World Championships, taking the bronze medal four seconds behind the Kenyan duo.Two days ago, Mokoena lost out on the gold medal in the long jump by just six centimetres, but today he won the triple jump by the same margin.Having returned to the event this season after a seven-year hiatus, Mokoena picked up his second major title in as many weeks, winning with a leap of 17.03m. Just like at the Commonwealth Games earlier this month, defending champion Tosin Oke had to settle for second place.Gold at last for Al-Gamel, Koala wins heptathlonHaving taken the silver medal in 2008, followed by bronze medals in 2010 and 2012, African record-holder Mostafa Al-Gamel finally won the gold medal in the men’s hammer.The 25-year-old was utterly dominant, and broke the championship record in the first round with 79.09m, the second-best throw of his career after the African record of 81.27m he set earlier this year.Each of his valid subsequent throws would have been sufficient to win from defending champion and six-time winner Chris Harmse (73.90m).Algeria’s defending champion Yasmina Omrani had a significant overnight lead in the heptathlon, but her hopes of a second successive title came crashing down after picking up an injury in warm-up for the long jump, forcing her to withdraw.Burundi’s Marthe Koala, having set a season’s best of 6.03m in the long jump, then took up the lead. She rounded out the competition with PBs in the javelin (37.41m) and 800m (2:31.61) to take the overall title with a national record of 5454.Just like the decathlon, the heptathlon at the African Championships forms part of the IAAF Combined Events Challenge.Nigerian sweep in sprint hurdles, Rahme comes of ageFor the first time ever in the 110m hurdles at the African Championships, one nation took all the medals on offer. Nigeria’s Ty Akins won in 13.57 from team-mates Alex Al-Ameen and Ogieriakhi Martins, who clocked 13.78 and 13.80 respectively.In 2009, South African pole vaulter Cheyne Rahme won the African junior title, and one year later set an African junior record of 5.50m. Today, he won his first major title as a senior, clearing 5.41m. He bettered by one centimetre the championship record set by fellow South African Okkert Brits.World champions Sum and Kiprop through to finalsElsewhere, world 800m champion Eunice Sum was a comfortable winner of her heat, clocking 2:02.43. Kenyan team-mate Agatha Jeruto also impressed, setting a PB of 1:59.88 to win her heat, while the other heat was won by Ethiopian teenager Tigist Assefa.World champion Asbel Kiprop won his 1500m heat in 3:43.87 from world junior record-holder Ronald Kwemoi and world indoor champion Ayanleh Souleiman. All three could well challenge for the top three spots in the final too.The other heat was won by 2012 world indoor bronze medallist Mekonnen Gebremedhin with Commonwealth champion James Magut and world bronze medallist Johan Cronje also advancing by right.Winner of the 100m title two days ago, Ivory Coast’s Hua Wilfried Koffi was the fastest in the 200m rounds, clocking 20.32 in the semis and adding another national record to his collection. 400m champion Isaac Makwala was just 0.02 behind in the same race.Ivory Coast’s Murielle Ahoure and Marie Josee Ta Lou, the silver and bronze medallists in the 100m, also won their 200m semi-finals.Jon Mulkeen for the IAAF

Ten years after winning her first African title – the first major title of her career – South African javelin thrower Sunette Viljoen won another gold medal in Marrakech on Wednesday (13), the fourth day of action at the African Championships.

Viljoen wins fourth African title, more gold for Mokoena and Chepkirui

The 2014 IAAF Hammer Throw Challenge moves on to the Finnish city of Turku, where the 52nd Paavo Nurmi Games will play host to a high standard men&rsquo;s competition on Wednesday (25).There hasn&rsquo;t been an 80-metre throw in this stadium for a long while, but Juha Tiainen&rsquo;s stadium record could finally be moved to history in this competition.Finland&rsquo;s 1984 Olympic champion won the 28th edition of the Games 30 years ago, just a couple of months before winning his gold medal in Los Angeles, with an outstanding 80.88m throw and his compatriot Harri Huhtala was second with a 78.74m personal best. However, a total of seven athletes entered in this year&rsquo;s competition have thrown farther than 80 metres during their careers and three have done so this season. Krisztian Pars, the London 2012 Olympic Games champion and current IAAF Hammer Throw Challenge leader, is competing in Turku for the first time but he won the previous meeting in this summer&rsquo;s series with a world-leading 81.57m in Ostrava a week ago, and the Hungarian has thrown beyond the 80-metre line several times at other venues in Finland so is certainly familiar with the country and its culture.Pars has also won eight of his nine official competitions so far this year.The previous world leader, Egypt&rsquo;s Mostafa Hicham Al-Gamel, was only seventh in Ostrava with a relatively modest 75.66m and well below his 81.29m African record from March so has to raise his level in order to challenge for a podium place. Tadjikistan&rsquo;s 32-year-old Dilshod Nazarov was the closest rival to Pars in Ostrava, reaching 80.62m for a season&rsquo;s best and only nine centimetres from his 2013 personal best. Others may find it hard to compete with these two top names but one who might is Russia&rsquo;s Sergey Litvinov, fresh from a win at the European Team Championships in Brunswick, Germany, having thrown a 78.77m season&rsquo;s best.In other events, the biggest attention grabber is, not surprisingly, the men&rsquo;s javelin. The world leader and African record-holder Ihab Abdelrahman El Sayed, of Egypt, is trying to get back on course after two less promising competitions. His huge 89.21m season opener in Shanghai and the 86.01m throw coming after that haven&rsquo;t been nearly matched in his next two meetings, where an injury apparently slowed him down. Local hero Tero Pitk&auml;m&auml;ki will naturally be the favourite for the win instead; he has been improving steadily since losing to El Sayed by almost eight metres in Shanghai. The 31-year-old reached 85.48m in his last competition in Lahti and will be joined by Antti Ruuskanen, the 2012 Olympic Games bronze medallist, who has a season&rsquo;s best of 83.41m. It would not be a total surprise either if Latvia&rsquo;s Zigismunds Sirmais, the world junior record-holder with 84.69m from 2011, would have another big throw after his 86.61m personal best in Ostrava.There are several world-class athletes in other events.Poland&rsquo;s 2011 world pole vault champion Pawel Wojciechowski and the Cuban silver medallist from the same competition, Lazaro Borges, contest their specialist event. South Africa&rsquo;s Godfrey Mokoena, who has won several medals at major championships in the long jump, and world indoor pole vault champion Yarisley Silva will also be in action.In the women&rsquo;s discus, there is a Cuban duel between Yaimi P&eacute;rez, a 66.03m performer this season, and Denia Caballero. Both women competed in the Moscow 2013 final last summer.Mirko Jalava for the IAAF

The 2014 IAAF Hammer Throw Challenge moves on to the Finnish city of Turku, where the 52nd Paavo Nurmi Games will play host to a high standard men’s competition on Wednesday (25).

A treat for Turku as Pars looks to remain perfect

Egypt’s Mostafa Al-Gamel added 66cm to the African hammer record on Friday (21), throwing a world-leading 81.29m.Making his 2014 season debut at a low-key competition in Cairo, the 25-year-old added more than three metres to his previous best of 77.73m, set last year at the Solidarity Games.In breaking the African record of 80.63m that had been set by South Africa’s Chris Harmse in 2005, Al-Gamel also surpassed the Egyptian record of 78.21m, set last year by compatriot Hassan Mohamed Mahmoud.Al-Gamel did not compete at last year’s IAAF World Championships in Moscow, but won the Mediterranean Games title earlier in the summer. He is also the 2011 All-Africa Games champion and represented Egypt at the 2011 World Championships and 2012 Olympics.Al-Gamel has now put himself in the frame as one of the early favourites for the IAAF Continental Cup in Marrakech at the end of the summer.Jon Mulkeen for the IAAF &nbsp;

Egypt’s Mostafa Al-Gamel added 66cm to the African hammer record on Friday (21), throwing a world-leading 81.29m.

European champions Wlodarczyk and Pars lead the hammer fields in Ostrava

Viljoen wins fourth African title, more gold for Mokoena and Chepkirui

A treat for Turku as Pars looks to remain perfect

Al-Gamel smashes African hammer record with 81.29m