European Athletics (EAA) – News – Kleinert adds class to the German team at the European Cup Winter Throwing

Germany has announced its team for the European Cup Winter Throwing in Bar, Montenegro, on 17-18 March and among their stars will be shot putter Nadine Kleinert, the three-time World Championships silver medallist.

Other notable names, in addition to 2011 World Championships discus silver medallist Nadine Müller who announced her participation last month, are 2011 European Athletics U23 Championships winners Julia Fischer and Sarah Mayer, who took the honours in Ostrava in the discus and javelin respectively.

The 2008 World Junior Championships discus gold medallist Gordon Wolf will be among the favourites for the under 23 title in his discipline.

The complete 15-strong German team is:

Men – shot put: Candy Bauer, Artur Hoppe; discus: Martin Wierig, Daniel Jasinski.
Women – shot put: Nadine Kleinert, Josephine Terlecki; discus: Nadine Müller, Heike Koderisch; javelin: Esther Eisenlauer.

U23 Men – shot put: Hendrik Müller, discus: Gordon Wolf.
U23 Women – shot put: Sophie Kleeberg; discus: Julia Fischer; hammer: Carolin Paesler; javelin: Sarah Mayer.

Ukraine will send 16 throwers to Bar. Among them will be discus thrower Kateryna Karsak, 2007 European Athletics U23 Championships gold medallist and 2011 SPAR European Team Championships winner.

Other prominent names in the squad include shot putter Galina Obleshchuk and hammer throwers Oleksiy Sokiriy and Irina Novozhilova. The 2009 European Athletics Junior Championships hammer gold medallist Andriy Martynyuk will be among the favourites in the U23 hammer competition.

Czech Republic will send three throwers including their hammer thrower Katerina Safrankova, who has been a medallist at both the European Athletics Junior Championships and European Athletics U23 Championships in the past.

Russia has not selected its European Cup Winter Throwing team yet but many of the likely candidates for a place on the plane were in action at the Russian winter throwing championships in the Black Sea resort of Adler Monday to Wednesday this week.

The hammer throwers were in fine form with 2006 European Athletics Championships and 2011 World Championships gold medallist Tatyana Lysenko making her debut for the year and reaching 71.25m

Even more impressive was the men's victory by Sergey Litvinov with 79.06m while Kiril Ikonnikov was second with 76.63m.

Javelin world champion Mariya Abakumova achieved 64.00m in her first competition of the year while the evergreen 2003 world champion Sergey Makarov won the men's javelin with 82.20m. The 2011 European Athletics U23 Championships javelin bronze medallist Dmitriy Tarabin, who is still only 20, won the under 23 competition with 80.49m.

 European Athletics (EAA)