Anita Wlodarczyk will start as the overwhelming favourite to add the one title missing from her bulging CV as the Polish colossus looks to further cement her legacy.

The weather may have been unpredictable, but Germany’s leading Olympic medal hopes turned in a consistent series of classy performances at their national championships in Kassel over the weekend.

Former world record-holder Betty Heidler will aim to challenge her own meeting record on Wednesday (25) at the IAAF World Challenge meeting in Dakar, part of the IAAF Hammer Throw Challenge.

As has become traditional, the men's and women's hammer events will be held the day before the main meeting at Ostrava Golden Spike meeting, which is part of the IAAF World Challenge and IAAF Hammer Throw Challenge, on 25 May.

The ISTAF Berlin meeting, part of the IAAF World Challenge, will see nine Olympic, 15 world and 15 European champions lining up on the blue track of Berlin’s iconic Olympic stadium on Sunday (31).

Olympic hammer champion Krisztian Pars unleashed a lifetime best throw of 82.49m at the Istvan Gyulai Memorial in Szekesfehervar to win at the IAAF Hammer Throw Challenge meeting in front of a home crowd on Tuesday (8).

Olympic champion Krisztian Pars will be the star attraction at the Istvan Gyulai Memorial meeting in Szekesfehervar, just outside Budapest, for the latest stop of the 2014 IAAF Hammer Throw Challenge on Tuesday (8).

Betty Heidler and Krisztian Pars produced world-leading efforts at Ostrava’s Golden Spike, part of the IAAF Hammer Throw Challenge, with the men’s and women’s hammer competitions traditionally held the day before the main meeting programme in this eastern Czech city.

Ukraine’s Bogdan Bondarenko got the best of Russian rival Ivan Ukhov in the latest duel between the reigning world and Olympic champions in the men’s high jump at the Seiko Golden Grand Prix in Tokyo. He certainly worked hard enough for it at the IAAF World Challenge meeting on Sunday (11).

After the both finished second in the 2012 contest the Polish pair of Pawel Fajdek and Anita Wlodarczyk both moved up a notch to claim the first prize of USD$30,000 in the 2013 IAAF Hammer Throw Challenge.

World record-holder Betty Heidler was the major casualty of a high-quality qualification session, which brought a premature end to the competition for several prominent names.

Expectations will be high of a home victory as the host nation Russia boast three of the top five throwers in the world this year.