Ostapchuk and Menkova have massive throws in Minsk | 13.06.2012
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| Nadezhda Ostapchuk of Belarus threw a national record and 2012 world-leading 21.13m in Minsk on Tuesday. |
Ostapchuk, the 2010 European Athletics Championships shot put gold medallist, achieved a national record and 2012 world-leading 21.13m.
Her previous outdoor record of 21.09m dated from 2005, the year she won at the Wortld Championships although she 21.70m indoors two years ago. “I was hoping for such result already at the Diamond League in Rome but I got a cold. Today everything was in place and I did everything right,“ reflected Ostapchuk.
Ostapchuk's predecessor as European champion, Natalya Mikhnevich, was second with 19.72m, her best for almost two years.
Mikhnevich moves up to equal third on this year's European rankings and shows that she stands a good chance of making the podium at her third successive European Athletics Championships later this month after taking the silver medal behind her compatriot in Barcelona two years ago.
Menkova, the 2008 Olympic Games champion, equalled her own hammer national record and 2010 world-leading mark of 78.19m.
Elena Matoshko improved by nearly 3 metres to 76.56m in second place, her previous best of 73.83m having come back in 2008 while third was 36-year-old Olga Tsander with 70.33m.
There was some stunning results in the men's hammer as well with five throwers going over 79 metres in a enthralling contest that was barely diminished by the absence of 2012 world leader Ivan Tikhon.
Former European under 23 champion Pavel Krivitskiy took the honours with 80.25m, the same distance as Andrey Vorontsov but the former was first by virtue of his second best effort.
Third was the 2006 European Athletics Championships bronze medallist Vadim Devyatovskiy with 79.60m while fourth was Azerbaijan guest Dmitriy Marshin who, at age of 40, improved his best by more than two metres to a national record distance of 79.45m;. The 2007 and 2009 European Under 23 Championships winner Yuriy Shayunov threw 79.19m but had to settle for finishing down in fifth place.
Other good marks in the men's field events came from pole vaulter Stanislav Tivonchik, who added 20 centimetres to his best when he went over 5.60m while shot put winner Pavel Lyzhin reached 20.48m.
