The Prefontaine Classic will stage the best men’s hammer competition on US soil since the 1996 Olympics when the discipline returns to the IAAF Diamond League meeting in Eugene on 28 May after a hiatus of 11 years.

Poland’s world hammer champion Pawel Fajdek extended his winning streak to nine competitions when he won at the Paavo Nurmi Games, an IAAF Hammer Throw Challenge meeting, with 80.71m in front of a capacity crowd of 12,000 in the Finnish city of Turku on Thursday (25).

The 8th edition of the Meeting International Mohammed VI in Rabat, Morocco’s top annual athletics event and an IAAF World Challenge meeting, will have Bogdan Bondarenko, Kirani James and Allyson Felix among its stars on 14 June, organisers announced on Tuesday (19).

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 15th European Cup Winter Throwing in the Portuguese city of Leiria saw a host of good performances as many of the people who might be expected to be medal contenders at the IAAF World Championships this summer had their first serious outdoor competition over the weekend (14-15).

Statisticians A Lennart Julin and Mirko Jalava look back on the best throwing performances of the year.

Although they were never expected to be in the hunt for overall victory at the IAAF Continental Cup, Marrakech 2014, being the host nation certainly didn’t harm Africa as they got off to a good start on the first day of action in Marrakech on Saturday (13).

It was billed as a battle of the Europeans, and Hungary’s Olympic champion Krisztian Pars duly delivered top points for Europe. But Egypt’s Mostafa El Gamel upset the odds by taking second ahead of Polish record-holder Pawel Fajdek who couldn’t get close to his world lead.

For the second year in succession, Poland’s Anita Wlodarczyk won the women’s IAAF Hammer Throw Challenge, while Krisztian Pars beat last year’s winner Pawel Fajdek in the men’s contest.

Poland’s world champion Pawel Fajdek got the 44th edition of the Rieti IAAF World Challenge meeting off on a high note with an outstanding victory in the final men’s contest in this year’s IAAF Hammer Throw Challenge with a winning throw of 81.11m on Saturday (6).

The men’s high jump clash between Bohdan Bondarenko and Andriy Protsenko will top the bill at the 44th edition of the IAAF World Challenge meeting in the famous Raul Guidobaldi athletics stadium in Rieti on Sunday (7).

World-leading performances by Olympic champions Sandra Perkovic and Krisztian Pars provided the highlights of the fifth day of action at the European Championships in Zurich on Saturday (16).