Report13 Sep 2015


Wlodarczyk and Fajdek end season on a high in Warsaw

FacebookTwitterEmail

Poland's Anita Wlodarczyk in action in the hammer (© AFP / Getty Images)

Poland’s world hammer champions Anita Wlodarczyk and Pawel Fajdek brought their 2015 campaigns to an end with victories at the Kamila Skolimowska Memorial on home soil in Warsaw on Sunday (13).

Wlodarczyk was never seriously challenged in the women’s contest. After an opening foul, she recorded 77.06m in the second round before improving to a meeting record of 78.16m in round five and completing her series with 77.65m.

Even the shortest of her throws, 75.49m, would have been enough to win by almost six metres as Germany’s Kathrin Klaas finished second with 69.80m.

The men’s competition brought together the top four finishers from the recent IAAF World Championships. Despite competing in Rieti just 24 hours earlier, Fajdek came out on top once again.

Olympic champion Krisztian Pars was the early leader, opening with 76.73m and then improving to 78.73m in round two. After a foul in round one, Fajdek moved into second place in round two with 77.60m but then produced the best mark of the day with 81.99m in the third round.

Fajdek had one other throw beyond 80 metres, throwing 80.64m in round five, while Pars remained in second place. World silver medallist Dilshod Nazarov was third with 74.12m and world bronze medallist Wojciech Nowicki was fourth with 73.16m.

Powell dominates

Had it not been for the -0.7m/s headwind, Jamaica’s former world record-holder Asafa Powell may have broken Usain Bolt’s meeting record of 9.98.

As it was, he had to settle for the victory in 10.01, winning comfortably from Turkey’s Ramil Guliyev, who clocked 10.26.

Jamaica’s Hansle Parchment won the 110m hurdles by a similar margin. The world silver medallist clocked 13.23 to finish 0.21 ahead of Shane Brathwaite of Barbados. Lolo Jones won the women’s sprint hurdles in 12.87.

Victories for world champions Kovacs, Kuchina and Malachowski

Aside from Fajdek and Wlodarczyk, three other recently crowned world champions were victorious in Warsaw.

World champion Joe Kovacs battled with Olympic champion Tomasz Majewski all the way through the shot put. The US thrower stole Majewski’s lead at the end of rounds one and two. Majewski took it back in the fourth round with 20.32, but Kovacs sent his shot out to 20.44m with the final throw of the competition to steal the victory.

Piotr Malashowski also saved his best for last in the discus. The world champion was chasing 2008 Olympic champion Gerd Kanter’s opening mark of 63.34m throughout the competition and finally nailed it in round six with 63.71m.

Just one failure separated joint world indoor champions Maria Kuchina and Kamila Licwinko in the high jump. Kuchina, the world champion, had one fewer failure at 1.94m and secured the victory at that height.

Bogdan Bondarenko won the men’s event with 2.26m.

Jon Mulkeen for the IAAF

Loading...