Michal Haratyk equalled his Polish record with another brilliant shot put performance at the Kamila Skolimowska Throwing Festival, a European Athletics Outdoor Area Permit Meeting, in Cetniewo on Saturday (3).
Having broken the record with 22.32m in Warsaw last Sunday, he reached the same distance in a superb series in a calendar year where he has maintained outstanding consistency.
Having won European gold in Berlin last summer, he then took the European indoor title in Glasgow in March and will now head to Doha looking for his own piece of history. Only two Polish men have ever made the podium at the IAAF World Championships – Edward Sarul, who won gold in the first edition in 1983 and Tomasz Majewski, who won silver in Berlin in 2009 – and now Haratyk will aim to join them.
Haratyk matched his Polish record - and European lead - in the second round before backing up that mark with an effort of 22.28m in round four while his no-throw in the last round was reportedly measured at at 22.37m.
Another brilliant series from Michal Haratyk in Cetniewo today!
— European Athletics (@EuroAthletics) August 3, 2019
21.06m
22.32m =NR
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22.28m
21.50m
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This meeting is staged in memory of Kamila Skolimowska, Poland’s 2000 Olympic hammer gold medallist who died at the age of 26 in 2009 and the strength of the country’s field events was on show once more.
In Berlin last summer, it was some occasion for Polish shot putters as they took European gold in both the men’s and women’s events. Top of the podium then, Paulina Guba was triumphant again on Saturday as she won with 18.05m.
Poland finished second on the medal table in Berlin, their medal haul including a one-two in the hammer with Wojciech Nowicki beating reigning champion Pawel Fajdek. Here the positions were reversed as Fajdek achieved a season’s best of 80.88m as he won from Nowicki with 77.57m while in the women’s event, Poland’s European bronze medallist Joanna Fiodorow won with 70.83m.
Marcin Krukowski won the men’s javelin with 83.68m and behind him there was a record-breaking performance from Belarusian Aliaksei Katkavets whose 82.63m was a national U23 mark. And in the women’s javelin, Katkavets’ teammate Tatsiana Khaladovich, the 2016 European champion, won with 61.66m.
Poland’s double European champion Piotr Malachowski won the discus with 65.35m from Belgium's Philip Milanov (64.55m) while Estonia’s Gerd Kanter showed class really is permanent. He is retired, he was 40 in May but he decided to compete and finished fifth by breaking 60 metres – with 60.06m.
Full results here.
Berglund breaks Swedish 1500m record in Bern; home wins for Sprunger and Kambundji
One of the longest standing national 1500m records was broken in Bern on Saturday night as Sweden’s Kalle Berglund created history.
Berglund won in 3:36.07 at the Citius Meeting, a European Athletics Outdoor Area Permit Meeting, to finally replace the mark of 3:36.49 which Johnny Kroon had set in Oslo on July 27 1986.
Now more than 34 years later, Berglund is top of the list after a superb run where he beat a star-studded cast with Algeria’s 2012 Olympic champion Taoufik Makhloufi in second in 3:36.50 and the Czech Republic’s Jakub Holusa, the 2015 European indoor champion, third in 3:36.65.
Berglund was close to the two pacemakers and he went through the first half of the race in 1:54.4 before stepping up a gear to achieve this fine landmark.
His next target will be to qualify for the IAAF World Championships in Doha in September where the standard needed is 3:36.00. He was so close to it in Bern and as his coach Janne Bengtsson told Friidrott.se: “He has never been in better shape.”
Lea Sprunger is one of the great stars of Swiss athletics and she treated the home crowd to a fine run as the European champion won the 400m hurdles in 55.13 from Vera Rudakova in 55.60.
More Swiss success came in the 100m as Mujinga Kambundji crossed the line first in 11.15 to beat the Netherlands' Jamile Samuel in 11.43 and there was Dutch success in the men's race as Hensley Paulina won in 10.33.
On a fine night for the Netherlands, Nick Smidt broke his personal best to win the 400m hurdles in 49.31 fom Great Britain's Chris McAllister, second in a 49.39 PB.
Poland's Marcin Lewandowski looked good as he won the 800m in 1:46.12 while teammate Patrycja Wyciszkiewicz ran a world lead of 1:26.49 in the 600m as Switzerland's European U20 1500m champion Delia Sclabas landed a PB of 1:26.63 in second.
Hosts Switzerland had success in the field as Angelica Moser cleared 4.56m to win the pole vault. In second, Fanny Smets cleared 4.46m to equal her Belgian record.
Full results here.