17th March 2013 07:30
Glory for Germany's men and Russia's women in the European Cup Winter Throwing in Spain on a day when the Olympic and world hammer champion is beaten.
Senior: Hammer - Women
Fifth at the European Athletics Championships in Barcelona in 2010 and eighth at the World Championships in Daegu 12 months after that established the international pedigree of Moldova's Zalina Marghieva.
Today in Castellon she underlined her ability by winning gold by the smallest of margins with a stunning defeat of the Olympic and world champion, Russian Tatyana Lysenko.
It is early days in the season, there are many more competitions to go, but it can be all about the confidence gained and the momentum gathered.
Lysenko was the star performer in the event, one of the biggest names in Castellon this whole weekend.
She won in London last summer with 78.18m and Daegu the year earlier with 77.13m, but she could not prise the title away from Marghieva.
It was an event where the Moldovan had to wait a long time to be confirmed as champion.
Her first round throw of 71.98m, competing 12th out of the 14 field, put her in front and it was that distance which stood at the top of order for the whole competition.
Lysenko was close, particularly in the second round with her best of the day of 71.54m which brought her second place, but she could not find the type of distances which has taken her to the top of the podium in the past two years.
Germany's Kathrin Klaas was third with 71.07m and Tracey Anderson produced a Swedish national record for fourth in 70.82m.
Senior: Shot put - Men
A home win in Castellon as Borja Vivas hit 20 metres exactly to secure victory for Spain by 32 centimetres.
Round four of the competition brought glory for the Malaga-born Vivas after early efforts of 18.96m and 19.43m before a third-round foul.
The irony of the performance was that it would have given him fourth place at last month's European Athletics Indoor Championships in Göteborg where his 19.30m saw him finish 17th in qualifying and not make the final.
But onwards and upwards towards the summer and the confidence a win can bring will only add to the determination to make a mark at the World Championships in Moscow.
Bulgarian Georgi Ivanov has thrown 20.59m this year but his best on Sunday was 19.68m with Ukraine's Andriy Semenov third with 19.55m, a distance he achieved in the fifth round and then matched it again on his final turn.
Germany's Ralf Bartels arrived in good form after his fourth place at the European Athletics Indoor Championships but the most experienced man in the field finished seventh with 19.28m.
Senior: Discus - Women
Nadine Muller was last to go of the 14 athletes in the field, but when her time came, the event was over.
Her first effort flew to a superb 66.69m, the best in the world this year, and an hour of so later meant she had won this European Cup Winter Throwing title for a third time.
Muller can now out Castellon alongside Yalta in 2007 (60.35m) and Arles in 2010 (64.30m) as the venues where this German star has achieved success in this event.
In the past two summers, Muller, 27, has won silver medals at the World Championships in Daegu and European Athletics Championships in Helsinki and she was the clear winner here.
Meline Robert-Michon, of France, was over five metres back in second with 61.26m and Serbian Dragana Tomasevic was third with 61.12m.
But Muller would have won with any of her throws, with her first round distance being followed by 62.39m, 63.97m, 61.8m, 64.62m and 63.99m.
Senior: Javelin - Men
Two years ago in Sofia, Zigismunds Sirmais of Latvia demonstrated that he is cut out for a big future in track and field as he broke Norwegian legend Andreas Thorkildsen's junior world record with a throw of 84.47m to win the junior title European Cup Winter Throwing. Few months later he won a gold medal at the European Athletics Junior Championships in Tallinn in a championship record of 81.53m.
Switching that talent to the senior is not always easy but on Sunday afternoon he did just that with a superb performance to win the senior javelin title at the 2013 European Cup Winter Throwing in Castellon.
And talk about leaving your best throw to last...
Sirmais, 20, did just that in a competition where Germany's Thomas Rohler was heading for victory after 81.87m in the first round.
Sirmais was only fifth by the time he picked up the javelin for his last throw, his best of the day had been 75.75m from the fifth round.
But he blew that distance out of the water as he launched one of the throws of his life to triumph with 82.51m from Rohler with Estonia's Risto Matas third with 79.10m.
Complete results
Highlights video