Ivana Spanovic added another gold medal to her gleaming collection with her first jump of the competition at the Mediterranean Games in Tarragona, Spain on Wednesday (27) evening, although three of her four valid jumps would have proved sufficient for the title.
Spanovic hit the sand at a championship record of 7.04m with her opening jump of the final although that mark would not count as a world lead as the reigning European indoor and outdoor champion was aided by a tailwind of 2.2 m/s - just beyond the legal limit.
But Spanovic equalled Malaika Mihambo’s world-leading mark in the second round, hitting the sand at 6.99m (+1.8 m/s) before threatening the seven metre-mark again with her third round jump of 6.95m (+1.3 m/s).
Mediterranean games today ended with gold medal and a championship record. 7.04m (+2 2). 6.99 with regular win. @OKSrbije @Tarragona2018 pic.twitter.com/TP4U0ZjzPd
— IvanaSpanovic (@IvanaSpaNOv1c) June 27, 2018
Spanovic reached 6.79m with her fourth jump - her only other valid jump of the final - but as excellent as her series was, the 28-year-old has hinted longer marks could be on the agenda in upcoming competitions. “More to come,” Spanovic tweeted ominously.
Her next competition will be the Lausanne Diamond League on 5 July.
In a good quality competition, the hosts had two medals to celebrate in the long jump as Juliet Itoya recorded a wind-aided 6.83m (+2.6 m/s) in the sixth round to seal the silver medal with teammate Fatima Diame taking the bronze with a lifetime best of 6.69m.
Titles for Tavernier and Alic in the throws
France’s Alexandra Tavernier maintained her excellent early season form, winning the hammer title with her first and only valid throw of the competition of 73.67m.
Her winning mark was just short of her season’s best of 74.09m and her lifetime best of 74.39m set at the 2015 World Championships in Beijing where she won a bronze medal at the age of 21.
There were two medals for France as Camille Sainte Luce won bronze in the hammer with 68.93m. Türkiye’s Kivilcim Salman separated the two Frenchwoman, winning silver with 71.07m.
Podis de #Athletics en #Tarragona2018:
— Tarragona 2018 (@Tarragona2018) June 27, 2018
♂ #ShotPut
Hamza Alic
Stipe Zunic @hrv_olimp_odbor
Mesud Pezer
♀ #HammerThrow
Alexandra Tavernier @FranceOlympique
Kivilcim Kaya Salman @TOC_Olympic
Camille Sainte Luce pic.twitter.com/JdT9Zxyg4V
Competing in his fourth successive Mediterranean Games, Bosnia & Herzegovina’s Hamza Alic won the shot put title after three successive silver and bronze medals since 2005.
In what was almost certainly his last chance to land an elusive title, the 39-year-old reached out to 20.43m in the fifth round to defeat a field which included throwers nearly two decades his junior as well as a reigning world medallist.
Croatia’s world bronze medallist Stipe Zunic had to settle for the silver medal with 20.21m while Mesud Pezer, who now holds the national indoor and outdoor records for Bosnia & Herzegovina, won bronze with 19.82m.