European Athletics (EAA) – News – Men’s throws: Thorkildsen, Mikhnevich and Malachowski maintain their domination; Charfreitag takes control in hammer

Shot

The 34-year-old Belarusian Andrei Mikhnevich was the best European shot putter during the 2010 season. The veteran set national records both indoors and outdoors and won the gold medal at the European Athletics Championships in Barcelona moving a step up from his second place in Göteborg four years ago.

Mikhnevich only competed in nine finals in 2010, taking into account both indoors and outdoors competitions, winning six of them. The start to the indoor season was strong, a 21.30m effort at the end of January was immediately followed by 21.81m national record at the National Indoor Championships and the 2003 world champion also got close to that results at the World Indoor Championships in Doha.

Mikhnevich really challenged world’s number one thrower there moving to the lead in round five with a 21.68m throw, but American Christian Cantwell came back to win with 21.83m,  the silver medal went to the Belarusian.

32-year-old German Ralf Bartels, who surprised everyone with a last round personal best 21.37m in Berlin during the 2009 World Championships, was strong in Doha too, winning the bronze with a 21.44m PB.

Outdoors Mikhnevich continued his winning ways outdoors starting with the European Cup Winter Throwing in Arles (21.04). A big 21.81m winning mark at the Belarusian Cup in May was then followed by outdoor national record 22.09m in Minsk in July, which eventually proved to be the biggest throw of the year by a European athlete.

In Barcelona, the standard of the competition was lower than expected, but the contest was an extremely close affair. The top three throwers were all within eight centimetres with Mikhnevich grabbing the gold with a 21.01m second round throw.

Reigning Olympic champion Tomasz Majewski of Poland was able to get close, 21.00m, but had to contend with a silver medal this time. Bartels won another bronze at 20.93m. The surprise of the season was Latvian Maris Urtans, who broke in the European elite in this event with a 21.63m winning throw at the European Team Champs 2^nd League in Belgrade. In Barcelona Urtans was fourth with a 20.72m throw.

Discus

European discus champion Piotr Malachowski.

The discus was dominated by Pole Piotr Malachowski and German Robert Harting. This duo has been the top two in major championships for the last two years and their young age for a thrower suggests this will not change anytime soon.

31-year-old Estonian, 2007 World champion and the reigning Olympic champion from Beijing 2008, threw an early world leader 71.45m in Chula Vista in April, but like in Berlin he wasn’t able to come up with answer to the challenge from Malachowski and Harting ending up with a fourth place this time having won the silver in 2006.

27-year-old Malachowski has now been in top two for three years in row with a silver in Beijing 2008, another silver in Berlin 2009 and now a gold in Barcelona. At the 2009 World Championships Harting robbed the gold in the last round, but in this competition the win was decided early with Malachowski hitting the winning throw in round two landing at 68.87m. Before the European championships the Pole had come close to breaking 70m barrier with a 69.83m national record in Gateshead in July, his fifth straight season 2006-2010 with a NR.

26-year-old Robert Harting too now has three major medals, in Barcelona he threw a great series with all six throws over 66 metres and three times over 68m, but just couldn’t find the way to pass Malachowski finishing with a silver medal having thrown 68.47m in round three. He was second in Osaka 2007 behind Kanter before taking the fourth place at the 2008 Olympics.

While Malachowski hit top form before and in Barcelona, Harting’s season was more balanced. The German competed 16 times winning 11 of them including the European Team Championships, Weltklasse and ISTAF meets and as his last meeting of the season the inaugural IAAF Continental Cup in Split. He also set a 69.69m personal best in Neubrandenburg at the end of August and clearly topped Malachowski in their 10 meetings during the season 7-3 making him the number one ranked discus thrower in the world.

In Barcelona, 35-year-old 2002 European champion Róbert Fazekas of Hungary was a surprise bronze medallist with a 66.43m season’s best.

Hammer

Slovakian Libor Charfreitag made a very strong  comeback in the year 2010 winning the European title in Barcelona.

With Olympic and world champion Primoz Kozmus of Slovenia not competing in 2010, Slovakian Libor Charfreitag, the bronze medallist at the 2007 World Championships in Osaka, took over as the world’s number one thrower during the season. For a long time he also held the world leading mark with a 80.59m result, which he threw in Mt. Sac Relays in Walnut in April.

The Slovakian held on to his favourite status in Barcelona winning his first major gold with a 80.02m throw and later went on to win the IAAF Continental Cup throwing 79.69m. A surprise silver medallist in Barcelona was 37-year-old Italian Nicola Vizzoni, who had also won a silver at the Olympics in Sydney 2000, 10 years before Barcelona. Vizzoni had done nothing much during the summer only reaching 77 metres once since a 78.22m in March, but came up with five throws over 77m at the Europeans finally hitting his medal throw, a 79.12m season’s best effort in round six to overtake Hungarian Krisztian Pars for the silver medal position.

For Vizzoni this was his best result in major championships for nine years, in 2001 in Edmonton he had thrown 80.13m to get to the fourth place at World Championships. For Pars, the 2010 season was a very different one from the 2009 one. Last year Pars won 18 out of 18 prior to the Berlin World Championships and still managed to finish in fourth place there, but coming to Barcelona he was in a different position.

Pars had not gone past 80 meters this season, didn’t do it the whole year and wasn’t in particulary good form, but this time he managed to get within 58cm of his season’s best 79.64m from start of May and finally won his first major medal, a bronze one with a 79.06m result in Barcelona.

Javelin

Peerless javelin maestro Andreas Thorkildsen of Norway.

In the men’s javelin it seems there is only one man who can be counted as a favourite in future championships. Norwegian Andreas Thorkildsen, 28, still has many years at the top of this event, and is looking as firm as ever. Even with his performances not being at the very top level result wise before the European championships, in Barcelona there was absolutely no question about who was the favourite in the Catalan city. Yes, the winning margin is Barcelona was only 56 centimetres, but the problem seems to be that no-one can even overtake him these days during a major championships final.

Thorkildsen now has won a medal in seven (!) straight major championships, five golds and two silvers 2004-2010 and has two straight Olympic and European titles.

The 2010 season however did bring some new winds to the top of the men’s javelin throw. Now it wasn’t just Finn Tero Pitkämäki, also with impressive four medals from five major champs 2006-2010 (only missing a medal in Berlin 2009 where he was fourth despite being sick), but 22-year-old German Matthias De Zordo also emerged on the scene to challenge the Norwegian.

De Zordo enjoyed a great breakthrough season culminating with a couple of personal bests and a silver medal from Barcelona. At the Europeans De Zordo, who only came to the Barcelona with a personal best of 84.38m, opened with a big 86.22m personal best and then another PB 87.81m in round two, which gave him the silver medal in his first major championships.

Thorkildsen however always had an answer to every challenge posed by the German in first round he came up with 86.32m throw and followed it up with 88.37m winning throw in the second. Pitkämäki started quietly in Barcelona only finding his rhythm in the last two rounds with 86.67m and 86.31m throws pocketing a bronze medal this time.

De Zordo recorded his first win against Thorkildsen already in his second career and first 2010 clash with the champion at the SPAR European Team Championships in Bergen where he topped the competition at 83.80m with Thorkildsen in second with a 82.98m result. But the Norwegian then took the next six meets and was 6-1 against De Zordo in 2010 and 9-1 against Pitkämäki losing only once to each of his challengers.

22-year-old Czech Petr Frydrych, coached by world record holder (98.48 in 1996) Jan Železný, made an early impression with a 88.23m personal best in Ostrava in May, but the rest of the season was far from smooth for the youngster, who finished in 10^th place in Barcelona with a 77.30m mark, far away from his early season form.

Notable stats:

Shot

New entries on the European all time list:

Tied for 8^th place 22.09 Andrei Mikhnevich BLR

21^st place 21.63 Maris Urtans LAT

2010 head-to-head between best Europeans:

Andrei Mikhnevich BLR – Tomasz Majewski POL 2-1

Andrei Mikhnevich BLR – Ralf Bartels GER 2-0

Tomasz Majewski POL – Ralf Bartels GER 7-4

Career head-to-head between best Europeans:

Tomasz Majewski POL – Andrei Mikhnevich BLR 17-14

Andrei Mikhnevich BLR – Ralf Bartels GER 10-10

Tomasz Majewski POL – Ralf Bartels GER 23-16

Discus

New entries on the European all time list:

15^th place 69.83 Piotr Malachowski POL

17^th place 69.69 Robert Harting GER

2010 head-to-head between best Europeans:

Robert Harting GER – Piotr Malachowski POL 7-3

Piotr Malachowski POL – Gerd Kanter EST 6-2

Robert Harting GER – Gerd Kanter EST 3-1

Piotr Malachowski POL – Virgiljus Alekna LTU 6-1

Gerd Kanter EST – Virgiljus Alekna LTU 8-0

Piotr Malachowski POL – Virgiljus Alekna LTU 6-1

Robert Harting GER – Virgiljus Alekna LTU 4-0

Career head-to-head between best Europeans:

Robert Harting GER – Piotr Malachowski POL 20-15

Gerd Kanter EST – Piotr Malachowski POL 23-10

Gerd Kanter EST – Robert Harting GER 15-7

Virgiljus Alekna LTU – Piotr Malachowski POL 23-11

Virgiljus Alekna LTU – Gerd Kanter EST 48-19

Virgiljus Alekna LTU – Piotr Malachowski POL 23-11

Robert Harting GER – Virgiljus Alekna LTU 10-9

Hammer

2010 head-to-head between best Europeans:

Libor Charfreitag SVK – Nicola Vizzoni ITA 4-0

Libor Charfreitag SVK – Krisztian Pars HUN 13-9

Libor Charfreitag SVK – Szymon Ziólkowski POL 8-1

Krisztian Pars HUN – Nicola Vizzoni ITA 1-1

Krisztian Pars HUN – Szymon Ziólkowski POL 7-0

Career head-to-head between best Europeans:

Libor Charfreitag SVK – Nicola Vizzoni ITA 13-9

Krisztian Pars HUN – Libor Charfreitag SVK 42-18

Szymon Ziólkowski POL – Libor Charfreitag SVK 29-23

Krisztian Pars HUN – Nicola Vizzoni ITA 17-3

Krisztian Pars HUN – Szymon Ziólkowski POL 42-13

Javelin

New entries on the European all time list:

16^th place 88.23 Petr Frydrych CZE

21^st place 87.81 Matthias De Zordo GER

2010 head-to-head between best Europeans:

Andreas Thorkildsen NOR – Matthias De Zordo GER 6-1

Andreas Thorkildsen NOR – Tero Pitkämäki FIN 9-1

Tero Pitkämäki FIN – Matthias De Zordo GER 3-2

Andreas Thorkildsen NOR – Petr Frydrych CZE 6-0

Matthias De Zordo GER – Petr Frydrych CZE 3-0

Tero Pitkämäki FIN – Petr Frydrych CZE 3-2

Career head-to-head between best Europeans:

Andreas Thorkildsen NOR – Matthias De Zordo GER 7-1

Andreas Thorkildsen NOR – Tero Pitkämäki FIN 33-27

Tero Pitkämäki FIN – Matthias De Zordo GER 4-2

Andreas Thorkildsen NOR – Petr Frydrych CZE 9-0

Matthias De Zordo GER – Petr Frydrych CZE 4-1

Tero Pitkämäki FIN – Petr Frydrych CZE 5-2

 

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