New season, same prolific story from Poland’s Anita Wlodarczyk.
In Doha on Saturday (6), Wlodarczyk began her summer in some style as she won a special competition at the Qatar Sports Club with a throw of 79.73m.
The multiple Olympic, world and European champion has never started an outdoor season better, with this effort securing her another landmark.
Not only was it the sixth best of all-time, it means Wlodarczyk now holds the top 10 greatest throws in history. It also means her victory sequence stretches to 31 competition since 2014.
Wlodarczyk, whose world record stands at 82.98m from Warsaw last August, also surpassed the 79m line in her fifth round of 79.06m reached after reaching out to 79.73m with her third effort.
Azerbaijan´s Hanna Skydan (73.07m), who won European bronze behind her in Amsterdam last year, and the Czech record-holder Katerina Safrankova (68.23) finished second and third respectively.
There was a fine result in the men’s competition for Belarusian Pavel Bareisha, who not only produced the second best throw of his career – 78.04m – but in the process beat 2012 Olympic champion Krisztian Pars from Hungary (75.51m).
Bahta breaks Swedish 10,000m record in Stanford
At the 2014 European Championships in Zurich, the 5000m was a race to remember as Sweden’s Meraf Bahta edged out the Netherlands’ Sifan Hassan for the title.
On Friday night at the Payton Jordan Invitational in Stanford, Bahta shaved 15 seconds off the Swedish 10,000m record as she soared to the top of the world lists with 31:13.06 to beat American Amy Cragg (31:17.20) and Ethiopian Goytetom Gebreslase (31:25.61).
Hassan, who won the 1500m in Zurich, had a fine victory in the 5000m in 15:13.15, finishing ahead of Japan’s Riko Matsuzaki (15:19.91) and American Lauren Paquette (15:20.48).
In the 3000m steeplechase, Great Britain’s Rosie Clarke broke her personal best to win in 9:36.75 - and secure the qualifying standard for the World Championships on home soil in London - while Norway’s multi-medallist Karoline Bjerkeli Grovdal took the 1500m in 4:10.74.
Beitia passes university challenge
Olympic and European high jump champion Ruth Beitia is plotting another big season after her amazing exploits last year and the European Athlete of the Year cleared 1.90m for victory in Cartagena at the Spanish University Championships on Saturday.
There were also wins for world and European 20km walk champion Miguel Angel Lopez - who will be in action at the European Race Walking Cup in Podebrady on 21 May - in the 10,000m in 39:51.64 and Maria Perez in the women’s 5000m in 21:25.25.
Croatian shot putter Stipe Zunic has already improved the national record to 21.45m this season and the European indoor fifth-placer produced the second best mark of his career with 21.27m in Zagreb on Sunday.
German heptathlete Carolin Schafer was also in brilliant form with three weeks until the Gotzis Hypo Meeting. Schafer equalled her high jump lifetime best with 1.84m and landed a shot put best of 14.79 as well as running 13.60 in the 100m hurdles.
Olympic heptathlon champion Nafissatou Thiam is also Gotzis-bound and the Belgian jumped 1.87m in Liege to finish second to Uzbekistan’s Nadezhda Dusanova with 1.90m.
Record-breaker Frantzeskakis books Grosseto place
Sunday was a day to remember for Greek teenager Hristos Frantzeskakis, who only turned 17 at the end of last month.
Using the 5kg implement, Frantzeskakis reached 80.15m in the second round at the 24th Throws Festival in Tripoli, Greece to break the national U18 record of 79.00m which had stood to Alexandros Papadimitriou since 1990.
Papadimitriou then went on to win European bronze in Munich in 2002 but the immediate target for Frantzeskakis is the European Athletics U20 Championships in Grosseto, Italy in July, a competition he also qualified for on Sunday with a throw of 66.24m with the 6kg implement.
Also on the countdown to the European U20 Championships in Grosseto is Nikol Tabackova, who broke the Czech U20 javelin record with 56.84m in Breclav on Saturday.
There are 58 events across Europe this week. For full information, go to http://www.european-athletics.org/calendar.