 |
| Czech javelin star Barbora Spotakova threw a season's best 65.77m to take the top prize at the 18th Josef Odlozil Memorial in Prague on Monday. |
Czech javelin star Barbora Å potáková delivered the highlight of the 18th Josef Odlozil Memorial in Prague, a European Athletics Outdoor Premium Meeting, when she threw a season’s best of 65.77m with her last attempt on Monday.
The 2008 Olympic Games javelin champion and world record holder had been struggling to find her best form until now, and had yet to win a competition this summer, but her performance on home soil moves her up to third in this year’s world rankings.
'If I would not win here, I would be very angry, but the result could be better because the conditions were very good,' reflected Å potáková, who also had two other throws over 64 metres.
Germany’s Katharina Molitor, who was fourth at the 2010 European Athletics Championships, was second with 63.32m.
Another local star, 400m hurdler Zuzana Hejnová, continue her good run of form and produced a meeting record of 54.44, her third outing under 54.5 seconds in just nine days.
Into the bargain, Hejnová again beat Russia’s reigning European champion Natalya Antyukh, who was second in 55.11.
A crowd of nearly 10000 also saw Britain’s talented teenage 400m hurdler Jack Green, still only 19 but the second fastest European this year, run a personal best for the second consecutive race to win in 49.17m.
He is the clear favourite for a gold medal in his event when he returns to the Czech Republic for the European Athletics U23 Championships in Ostrava next month.
Russia’s Yulia Chermoshanskaya won the 200m in 22.92 with Czech Republic’s 2011 European Athletics Indoor Championships 400m gold medallist Denisa Rosolová, after two good second place finishes over one lap of the track in Ostrava and Oslo recently, dropping down a distance and finishing third in 23.08.
Czech high jumper Jaroslav Bába, the 2011 European Athletics Indoor Championships silver medallist, equalled his outdoor best for the year and set a meeting record when he went over 2.31m at his third attempt, before trying unsuccessfully 2.35m.
The Greek pair of Dimitrís Hondrokoúkis and Konstadínos Baniótis were second and third respectively, both men clearing 2.28m.
Hungary’s Krisztian Pars won the hammer with 78.68m and despite suffering from injured fingers.
Germany’s Markus Esser was second with 77.23m while Slovakia’s 2010 European Athletics Championships gold medallist Libor Charfreitag had to settle for third with 76.57m. Surprisingly, Russia’s world leader Aleksey Zagorniy couldn’t register a valid attempt and suffered his first defeat of the year after eight successive wins.
Czech pole vaulters won both events with Jirina Ptacniková clearing 4.52m to win the women’s contest and Jan Kudlicka going over 5.60m to win the men’s event. As expected, Latvia’s Maris Urtans was the best in shot put with 20.27m.
There was an excellent result in the women’s under 23 800m, which Ukraine’s 18-year-old Anastasiya Tkachuk won in 2:01.51.
Algeria’s Zahra Bouras won the main 800m in 1:59.21 but Slovak’s Lucia Klocová clocked a season’s best of 1:59.48 in second place while Russia’s Svetlana Klyuka was third in 1:59.65.
The event in the Czech capital on Monday was the third of nine European Athletics Outdoor Premium Meetings in 2011.
Further details of all European Athletics Outdoor Meetings can be found here:
http://www.european-athletics.org/calendar-meetings-2011.html