European Athletics’ 2017 series of one day meetings came to an end on Tuesday night with the 53rd edition of the Palio Citta del Quercia meeting in the Italian town of Rovereto.
Five European athletes triumphed at the European Athletics Outdoor Premium Meeting with pride of place going to Spanish triple jumper Pablo Torrijos, who equalled his national outdoor best with a fifth round leap of 16.96m and finished off with a jump of 16.85m for good measure.
Torrijos, 25, was the 2015 European indoor silver medallist and also a world championships finalist earlier this month and will be looking to add to his medal collection at the Berlin 2018 European Athletics Championships, part of the first multi-sport European Championships in conjunction with the Scottish city of Glasgow, after only finishing eighth last year in Amsterdam.
Ukraine’s IAAF World Championships London 2017 high jump silver medallist Yuliya Levchenko is still struggling to recapture the form that saw her clear 2.01m over a week ago and was beaten into second place in Rovereto by her compatriot and 2013 European U20 champion Kateryna Tabashnyk.
Tabashnyk cleared a personal best of 1.95m while Levchenko could go no higher than 1.93m.
Other European wins came courtesy of Great Britain’s Dwayne Cowan, who took the 400m in 45.63, Germany’s Tobias Scherbarth won the pole vault with 5.35m and Latvia’s Lina Muze was the women’s javelin winner with 60.18m.
USA's London 2017 discus winner Mason Finley overcame Estonia’s evergreen 2008 Olympic champion Gerd Kanter, the pair throwing 64.77m and 62.41m repectively, while
Jamaica’s Ristananna Tracey won the women’s 400m hurdles in 54.58 while Kenya’s Wycliffe Kinyamel was the surprise winner of the 800m, taking nearly two seconds off his best with a meeting record 1:43.94. Bosnia’s Amel Tuka was third with 1:44.62 while Great Britain’s Guy Learmonth reduced his personal best to 1:45.10 in fourth place.
[PHOTO src='1282604' size='mediumLandscape' align='right']
Three meeting records provided the highlight the 67th Hanzekovic Memorial in Zagreb, including a 70.83m effort by home star and two-time Olympic and world champion Sandra Perkovic.
Perkovic produced her huge effort in the fifth round, the second best throw of the year and only beaten by her own world-lead of 71.41m, and she also reached 70.44m in the final round, winning by almost eight metres.
Other meeting records went to USA’s Gil Roberts, who won the 400m in 44.94, and Kenya’s Norah Jeruto won the women’s 3000m steeplechase in 9:04.56.
Russia’s Sergey Shubenkov won the 110m hurdles in Zagreb for the third time, after victories in 2014 and 2015, this time crossing the line in 13.12.
Other European winners were Russia’s Aleksandr Menkov, who went out to 7.98m in the long jump and Poland’s London 2017 high jump bronze medallist Kamila Licwinko, who cleared 1.96m.