Tomas Stanek just missed out on a medal at the World Championships but the 26-year-old banished that disappointment with a standout showing at the Kamila Skolimowska Memorial in Warsaw on Tuesday evening.
Stanek was second on the standings behind Olympic champion Ryan Crouser but that was until he uncorked a fifth-round throw of 22.01m to equal his Czech record and move ahead of Crouser, whose best effort of the night was measured at 21.68m.
The Czech Republic won three medals - one of each colour - at the World Championships in London but Stanek came just five centimetres short of adding to their tally in the British capital. However, Stanek has still enjoyed the best season of his career thus far, winning a silver medal at the European Indoor Championships and surpassing the 21m line in fifteen competitions.
Renaud Lavillenie won a bronze medal in the pole vault in London but he said it felt like winning gold after revealing he required surgery in the off-season after a motorcycle accident.
After clearing a season’s best of 5.89m to secure his fifth successive World Championships medal in London, Lavillenie improved again to 5.91m before three attempts at 6.01m. His younger brother Valentin was the runner-up with 5.61m while world silver medallist Piotr Lisek could only clear 5.41m to finish fourth.
Anita Wlodarczyk was in unstoppable form in the hammer again and days after claiming her third world title in London, the Pole had two more throws over the 79m line. After going out to 79.80m in the second round, Wlodarczyk backed that effort up with 79.23m in the fourth round. Her teammate Malwina Kopron was second with a lifetime best of 75.40m.
Pawel Fajdek also claimed his third world hammer title in London and he delivered another victory on home soil, going out to 81.50m to defeat teammate Wojciech Nowicki (77.13m) while Robert Harting defeated Piotr Malachowski in the discus, 66.05m to 65.48m.
In the high jump, two-time world champion Maria Lasitskene extended her unbeaten streak with a 1.95m clearance to defeat world bronze medallist Kamila Licwinko, second with 1.92m.