Harting throws a personal best 69.69m in Neubrandenburg – European Athletics (EAA) – News

World champion Robert Harting of improved his personal best to 69.69m, an addition of 26cm to his previous best, at the DKB-duels meet in Neubrandenburg on Saturday.

The meeting had a unique format that consisted of duels between two athletes. In the technical events the winner was decide on the basis of rounds won by an athlete out of a total of five rounds.

In the men’s discus, the first round went to Poland’s European champion Piotr Malachowski who managed a throw of 67.22m over 65.59m by Harting. Both the athletes faulted in the second round, while Harting took the third round with a throw of 68.88m, Malachowski could only manage 64.94m.

In fourth round Harting was better again with 67.33m over 65.57m. And in the fifth, Harting made it 3-1 with a personal best throw of 69.69m as Malachowski fouled.

All the other technical events were decided after three rounds itself.  Germany’s Nadine Muller with a best of 62.98m won the women’s discus, while Markus Esser took the hammer 74.30m, Betty Heidler won the women’s hammer 72.05m and Nadine Kleinert claimed victory in the women’s shot with 19.04m.

Local star Ralf Bartels won an exciting shot duel over Olympic champion Tomasz Majewski of Poland 21.07m – 20.65m.

Around 4000 spectators witnessed the duels that included two hurdles races as well. In the women’s 100m hurdles European medallist Carolin Nytra defeated Czech record holder Lucie Skrobakova 12.90 to 13.33 (+1.0). The men’s 110m hurdles was won by Alexander John who defeated former European indoor champion Gregory Sedoc of the Netherlands by 0.01 (13.71-13.72, +1.6).

The DKB Team won seven out of eight events over the challenger team. The next round will take place in Elstal and will focus on running and jumping events.

European Athletics (EAA) – News