Israel to send first female shot putter to the European Athletics Championships

Anastasiya Muchkayev is set to become the the first woman to represent Israel in shot put at the European Athletics Championships in Helsinki. - Photo by Tammy Dahan/www.shots.co.il

Anastasiya Muchkayev not only set a new Israeli shot put record of 17.18m in Tel Aviv on Saturday but it was confirmed on Monday that she is set to become the first woman to represent Israel in the event at the European Athletics Championships.

The 20 year-old thrower, who competes for the Maccabi Bnei Hanegev Beer-sheva club, improved her own best by 1.16m and added 64cm to the previous national record set by Sivan Jean in 2005.

She will become only the second Israeli woman thrower ever to compete in the continental show piece event, following Jean's appearance in the discus in Göteborg six years ago.

Muchkaev is now also just two centimetres short of Olympic Games B standard and she is hoping to achieve this goal in the forthcoming competitions.

In Tel Aviv, Muchkaev also threw a discus personal best of 51.16m to improve by almost a metre.

Israel currently has 10 athletes qualified for the 2012 European Athletics Championships, which will be held in Helsinki from 27 June to 1 July.

Men – 400m: Donald Sanford; 800m: Dustin Emrani; 10,000m Tasama Moogas; high jump Dmitriy Kroyter; triple jump; Yochai Halevi. Women – 100m hurdles: Irina Lenskiy; high jump: Maayan Furman, Danielle Frenkel; pole vault Jillian Schwartz; shot put: Anastasiya Muchkayev.

It is worth noting that the ever-green Lenskiy, who has competed at the 2002, 2006 and 2010 European Athletics Championships, will turn 41 on 12 June and is set to become the older ever competitor in the women's 100m hurdles at the Championships, beating her own record from two years ago in Barcelona.