Roma 2024 European champion Sara Fantini, from Italy, leads an outstanding women’s hammer field on the first day of the European Throwing Cup in Nicosia, Cyprus on Saturday and Sunday (15-16).
Both days of the European Throwing Cup will be streamed live on the European Athletics YouTube channel and will be accompanied by expert English-language commentary.
The first senior event to be decided over the two days of action in the Cypriot capital should provide an outstanding curtain-raiser for the women’s events with four of the top five from the Rome 2024 European Athletics Championships competing led by Fantini and French bronze medallist Rose Loga.
The 2023 Cup winner Fantini has already had two competitions to warm up for Nicosia which have included winning a national winter throwing championships win on 1 March, albeit with a fairly modest 70.81m.
By contrast, Loga sent her implement out to 73.17m in warm weather of Reunion in February and followed this up with a 71.54m to win her own winter throwing title.
However, both women will undoubtably have taken note of the massive world-leading mark and national record of 75.45m by Finland’s Silja Kosonen on home soil in Kaustinen last Saturday.
The 2023 European U23 champion is still only 22 and finished fourth in Rome, as well as fifth at the Olympic Games, and will be looking for her first Cup win.
Also in the field is Katrine Koch Jacobsen, who finished fifth in Rome, who beat all her main rivals 12 months ago in Leiria when she became the first ever Danish winner of a European Throwing Cup title in any event.
Romania’s 2022 European champion Bianca Ghelber – who was the U23 winner in 2011 and 2012 – was second last year, as she was in 2023 and will also be expected to be in contention for a place on the podium once again.
With such a loaded field already throwing good distances, it’s possible that the Cup record of 75.05m, which belongs to the Polish legend Anita Włodarczyk from 2009, could be under threat.
Vilagos opens 2025 campaign
Javelin exponent and 2024 European Athletics Rising Star of the Year Adriana Vilagos will open her 2025 campaign in Nicosia.
However, the prodigious 21-year-old Serbian thrower – who is still young enough to be eligible to contest the European Athletics U23 Championships in Bergen, Norway this coming July – will face plenty of competition in her bid to retain her title she won 12 months ago in Leiria.
The Roma 2024 silver medallist’s rivals this year include the 2022 European champion and 2023 Cup winner Elina Tzengko, from Greece.
Tzengko struggled to find her best from on the big occasion last season, finishing sixth on the continental stage and then ninth at the Olympic Games, but she has started her season in fine fashion by throwing 62.41m in her national winter throwing championships on 1 March.
In addition, the field includes Croatia’s 2016 Olympics champion Sara Kolak and Türkiye’s Eda Tugsuz, the latter having finished second to Vilagos in the 2024 Cup and she can boast of having the best mark in the field with her national record 67.21m, albeit from 2017.
Nevertheless, despite the presence of this trio and Norway’s Sigrid Borge who threw 66.50m in 2023 but whose season last year finished at the end of June due to injury, Vilagos is upbeat about her prospects of defending her Cup crown.
"I feel great, and the preparations went very well. This is a great opportunity to check my form before the main season,” commented Vilagos on Wednesday.
Lucky 13 for Robert-Michon?
The discus has four women who have lifetime bests over 66 metres and who have already thrown beyond 61 metres at this very early stage in the year.
Portugal’s Roma 2024 bronze medallist Liliana Ca has already thrown 62.39m this year and has a full set of Cup medals, winning in 2021, finishing second in 2023 and third in 2022..
However, Ca’s Cup achievements are dwarfed by those accrued by France’s venerable 45-year-old Melina Robert-Michon who has no less than 12 Cup medals to her name, including three wins in 2014, 2016 and 2016.
Amazingly, the 2016 Olympic silver medallist won her first Cup medal, a bronze, at the first ever edition of the European Throwing Cup in 2001 back when it was held under its initial name of the European Winter Throwing Challenge.
Having already thrown 62.18m to lie second on the European list at this early stage in the season, who would bet against Robert-Michon standing on the podium once again?
Pudenz and Steinacker provide German excellence
Germany’s Kristin Pudenz has also started the season well with a 61.59m win at her own national throwing championships in Halle last month and will be looking to extend her country’s tradition in the event with recent winners including Shanice Craft and Cup record-holder Nadine Muller.
Pudenz will be accompanied by her compatriot Marike Steinacker, who threw 61.36m in Halle.
Steinacker finished down in fifth place in last year’s Cup competition in Leiria but went on to throw over 67 metres later that summer and just miss out on an Olympic medal with a fourth-place finish in Paris.
Italy’s 2022 Cup winner Daisy Osakue, who was eighth in Paris also returns to the fray after a disappointing 11th place in the Cup last year while Sweden’s Vanessa Kamga, who set a national record of 65.14m in the Olympic qualifying competition and went on to place fifth in the final, could also be contenders for medals.
Inchude v Maisch shot put duel
The three shot put medallists from last weekend’s European Athletics Indoor Championships, led by Apeldoorn winner Jessica Schilder, will unfortunately not be in Nicosia, as they are focusing on the forthcoming World Athletics Indoor Championships in Nanjing, China in just over a week’s time.
However, Apeldoorn finalists Jessica Inchude, from Portugal, and Katharina Maisch, from Germany – who finished fifth and seventh respectively – will open their outdoor campaigns.
It could be an interesting head-to-head duel between the pair who have both set personal bests this winter indoors, with 19.18m and 19.10m respectively last month.
Both women can boast of previous victories in the Cup, Inchude winning the senior title in 2023 while Maisch took the U23 title back in 2018.
Host nation Cyprus stands an outstanding chance of taking a title in the U23 ranks as the reigning European U20 hammer champion Valentina Savva returns home from university in the USA.
However, Savva – who also won silver at last year’s World Athletics U20 Championships and is still only 19 – faces Italy’s 2022 world U20 hammer champion Rachele Mori, who has already thrown 68.39m, and Sweden's Thea Lofman - a 73.31m performer and a winner last year - in what is the pick of the women’s U23 contests.
Phil Minshull for European Athletics