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| Russia's Svetlana Feofanova won the pole vault battle with world champion Anna Rogowska with a clearance of 4.70m in Szczecin on Saturday. |
Reigning European champion Svetlana Feofanova of Russia defeated home star and world champion Anna Rogowska at the 57th edition of the Janusz Kusocinski Memorial, a European Athletics Outdoor Premium meeting, in Szczecin on Saturday.
Poland’s longest-running international meeting was for the first time hosted in the city of Szczecin. The meeting saw a string of impressive performances including Svetlana Usovich’s world-leading 1:58.12 in the 800m as well as the winning efforts of Poland’s two throwing stars: Piotr Malachowski’s 68.49m in the discus and Tomasz Majewski’s 21.25m in the shot put.
The pole vault clash between Rogowska and Feofanova lived up to its billing as the prime event of the meeting. Both started with first-time clearances at 4.40m, and followed it with easy clearance of 4.60m. Feofanova cleared 4.70m on her first attempt while Rogowska failed and decided to take her remaining two attempts at 4.80m. Neither of her two attempts were successful and the Russian pocketed the title. Monica Pyrek, a bronze medallist at the last IAAF World Championships in Berlin, finished third with a clearance of 4.50m.
In the women’s 800m, Svetlana Usovich took the lead after the first lap and never looked back. The Belarussian stopped the clock at 1:58.12, 0.15 faster than the previous 2011 best, set by Halima Hachlaf of Morocco. Liliya Lobanova of Ukraine finished second with 1:59.94.
European discus champion Malachowski had his best competition of the season so far. After opening with 65.25m, he threw his implement out to 68.49m, a season’s best and the No. 2 mark in the world in 2011, to pocket the top prize.
Ben Harradine of Australia finished second with 65.34m ahead of Croatian Roland Varga’s 64.17m.
Poland’s Olympic shot put champion Tomasz Majewski won his contest with Belarussian Andrei Mikhnevich with a throw of 21.25m. Mikhnevich finished with a best of 20.91m.
Reigning hammer world champion Anita Wlodarczyk made a strong return with a best effort of 69.62m. The Pole finished second behind former world record holder Tatyana Lysenko, whose longest throw was 70.18m.
Vanya Stambolova dominated the women’s 400m hurdles and won the race in 54.73. Ukrainian pair of Hanna Titimets and Anastasiya Rabchenyuk finished second and third respectively clocking 55.43 and 55.47.
The Ukrainian sprinters also dominated individually in the women’s 100m. European indoor champion Olesya Povh registered a comfortable victory with 11.28, ahead of Nataliya Pohrebnyak 11.35.
In the 3000m, a traditional feature of the meeting named after the former world record holder in the event, the race was won by Valeriy Smirnov of Russia in a time of 7:49.11.
Click here for complete results.