Sandra Perkovic in the discus at the Hanzekovic Memorial in Zagreb (© Organisers)
Local heroine Sandra Perkovic will head a star cast of recent IAAF World Championships London 2017 medallists at the Hanzekovic Memorial in the Croatian capital Zagreb, an IAAF World Challenge Meeting, on 29 August.
"With strong crowd support the disc should fly beyond seventy metres," Perkovic said, adding that among her goals this season is to break meeting record at her home competition, one she set two years ago with 69.88m. She's already conquered her main objective of 2017 --to regain the world title in the discus throw-- and after Zagreb will aim to collect another IAAF Diamond League Trophy in Brussels.
The meeting will kick-off on Monday (27) with the men's shot put whose headliners include the top-four finishers from the World Championships in London earlier this month: gold medallist Tom Walsh of New Zealand, Joe Kovacs of the US, Croat Stipe Zunic and Czech Tomas Stanek.
Local attention will focus on the 26-year-old Zunic who took bronze in the British capital with 21.46m, just two centimetres shy of his own national record set in May.
Other high-powered match-ups announced by organisers include the women's 100m hurdles, a field headed by recently-minted world silver medallist Dawn Harper Nelson. The US athlete, who took the Olympic title in 2017, will take on compatriots Queen Harrison, Christina Manning and Kristi Castlin along with Germany's Pamela Dutkiewicz, the London bronze medallist.
The men's 100m will pit world 200m champion Ramil Guliyev against Jamaicans Asafa Powell and Yohan Blake and Britons Adam Gemili and Daniel Talbot, members of the gold medal-winning 4x100m British squad at the World Championships.
The women's high jump will feature Yuliya Levchenko of Ukraine and Kamila Licwinko of Poland, the London silver and bronze medallists, respectively.
Bob Ramsak for the IAAF
