World record for Wlodarczyk in Bydgoszcz – European Athletics (EAA) – News

The 2009 World Championships gold medallist improved on her own previous record of 77.96m set in Berlin.

Wlodarczyk opened with 74.83m, responding to the first round effort of Germany's Betty Heidler which went out to 73.33m, and then she improved to 77.67m in the second round, a distance only she and Russia's former world record holder Tatyana Lysenko have ever reached.

However, this was all a prelude to her effort of 78.30m in the third round, which naturally drew massive roars from the crowd.

Her job done for the day, she passed her three final attempts.

"I have to thank the wonderful audience that was cheering for me. This is just the beginning of the season and already such a result! I am very pleased. I am saving my strength for the remainder of the season so I decided not to throw more after the third round," said a delighted Wlodarczyk.

The extravagant dancing celebrations after her last world record in Berlin finished abruptly when she fell awkwardly on her ankle and damaged ligaments, which ended her season. This time her delight was a little more restrained.

"Of course I was happy, but everything was much more controlled than Berlin. What makes me most happy is that the record fell on Polish soil. I had a feeling beforehand that I was in good shape. Everything felt very good during training. Now I want to be the first woman in history to throw over 80 metres," she added.

Behind her, the 2007 world champion Heidler had four throws over 73 metres and finished with a very creditable 74.10m.

Wlodarczyk's fireworks put what was otherwise a very fine performance by Poland's other world champion Anna Rogowska in the shade.

Rogowska cleared 4.71m in the Pole Vault, one of three other European-leading marks for the year at the meeting in addition to Wlodarczyk's world record, and she improved her own meeting record, which had stood since 2005, by 21 centimetres before having three failures at a new Polish record height of 4.84m.

British record holder Kate Dennison finished second with 4.50m, finishing ahead on count back from Russia's Yulia Golubchikova, who cleared the same height.

Przemysław Czerwiński made it a Polish Pole Vault double victory as the only man over 5.65m.

Another popular Polish victory came courtesy of Piotr Małachowski. The Discus silver medallist in both Beijing and Berlin handed Hungary's Zoltán Kovágó his first defeat of the year when he threw 67.56m.

In fact, all four of Małachowski's valid throws were over 65 metres, with his best effort coming in the fourth round, and any of them would have been good enough to win.

Kovágó wasn't even the first Hungarian, with Robert Fazekas finishing second with 64.18m and Kovágó having to settle for third with 63.40m.

Poland's 2008 Olympic Games Shot Put gold medallist Tomasz Majewski didn't have quite as much success as his compatriot despite sending his implement out to a season's best of 21.22m, the second best European mark of the year.

He finished third with United States' 2009 world champion Christian Cantwell taking the victory with 21.50m.

Russia's Tatyana Kotova was the surprise women's Long Jump winner with her first round 6.66m sufficing to win. Her compatriot and 2010 world leader Olga Kucherenko could only manage 6.57m in the first round, fouling three of her remaining events and passing two, before eventually finishing fourth.

Poland's Marcin Lewandowski who ran a European-leading 800m time of 1:44.56 in Oslo on Friday night was a little tired from the travelling and the short recovery time but still managed to win over two laps of the track in 1:47.95.

In the women's 800m, Lithuania's Egle Balciunaite came out on top in 2:01.96.

Great Britain's Eilidh Child won the women's 400m hurdles in a personal best of 55.17, improving from her former best of 55.32 she set when talking the silver medal at last summer's European Athletics Under 23 Championships.

She just came home in front of Romania's Angela Morosanu who clocked 55.25.

There was another good British performance in the men's 400m hurdles when last summer's World Championships finalist David Greene became the first European to run under 49 seconds this year when he clocked 48.96, finishing second behind South Africa's Louis Van Zyl who won in 48:87.

Another European-leading performance came in the men's 3000m Steeplechase when Poland's Tomasz Szymkowiak ran a personal best of 8:21.12   He finished fourth In Bydgoszcz behind the Kenyan winner Elijah Chelimo, who clocked 8:16.56.

In the men's Hammer, Germany's Sergey Litvinov threw 78.76m in the fifth round, and also had 78.63m in the last round, to defeat Hungary's Krisztián Pars, who had a best of 77.96m.

Meeting website:
https://www.eaf.bydgoszcz.pl/index.php

European Athletics (EAA) – News