Poland’s world record-holder Anita Włodarczyk produced her longest throw since 2022 at the Meeting Madrid, a World Athletics Continental Tour Silver meeting, on Thursday (16) evening.
The Pole, who has won four European hammer titles in her illustrious career, surpassed the 75 metre-line in the fourth round with 75.01m to break the world V40 record, improving her own mark of 74.64m which she set at last year’s World Athletics Championships in Tokyo.
This was the first time Włodarczyk has broken the 75 metre-barrier since 2022 when she began her year with a mark of 78.06m before her season was cruelly ended after sustaining a broken leg while apprehending a thief who had tried to break into her car.
That injury forced Włodarczyk to miss the 2022 European Athletics Championships in Munich but the 40-year-old returned to the podium for the sixth time in Roma 2024 when she won silver with 72.92m. She will be targeting a record-extending seventh medal in her event at the 2026 European Athletics Championships in Birmingham from 10-16 August.
Włodarczyk finished a close second in Madrid behind reigning European champion Sara Fantini who took the victory with 75.62m, one of many excellent results from the Italians in Madrid with the European Athletics Championships in Birmingham less than one month away.
Anna Polinari won the women’s 400m in a lifetime best of 50.36 - just 0.06 shy of two-time European champion Libania Grenot’s Italian record - ahead of Bahrain’s Kemi Adekoya in 50.37 and world silver medallist Andrea Dallavalle defeated a world class field in the men’s triple jump, winning with a wind-aided 17.59m (+3.4) ahead of Algeria’s Yasser Mohammed Triki (17.50m) and Jamaica’s Jaydon Hibbert (17.44m).
Other standout results included Great Britain’s European U23 champion Emily Newnham reducing her lifetime best to 53.92 in the 400m hurdles for victory over European silver medallist Louise Maraval in 54.05 and Germany’s Bo Kanda Lita Baehre clearing 5.90m in the pole vault to equal his lifetime best.