European Athletics (EAA) – News – Esser shows he’s a man for all seasons as Germany makes it a hammer double

The wet circle clearly affected several of the leading names – Russia’s world leader Alesey Zagorniy finished eighth – but the top three defied the sodden conditions to produce outstanding performances.

Germany’s Markus Esser, a finalist at the last three World Championships and wearing a wool hat to keep his bald head warm, launched his implement out to a Championships record of 79.28m in the third round, just fractionally short of his season’s best of 79.69m.

His win was as emphatic as his compatriot Betty Heidler in the women’s event 24 hours earlier.

He finished over two metres ahead of Poland’s second placed Pawel Fajdek, who also shone in the storm and had three personal best throws, starting with 76.73m in the first round, and then improving to 76.76m and 79.98m before fouling his last throw.

Fajdek’s final throw took him from fourth to second as Ukraine’s Oleksey Sokyrskyy was also in the best form of his life and threw 76.98m in the second round while Belarus’ Pavel Kryvitski reached 76.93 earlier in the penultimate round.

The trio behind Esser then fouled all their final throws while looking for a big one that could get closer to the German.

Russia maintained their overall lead after 22 events with 219 points but Germany, in second place, closed the gap and moved to 195.5 points.

Click here for all event-by-event reports from the Stockholm 2011 SPAR European Team Championships.

European Athletics (EAA) –  News