<p><br />European silver medallist Nikola Ogrodnikova produced the standout performance at the Josef Odlozil Memorial in Prague on Monday (8), winning at the <strong>World Athletics Continental Tour Bronze</strong> meeting with 64.22m.</p>
<p>The women&rsquo;s javelin was staged as the &lsquo;Dana Zatopkova Memorial&rsquo; in honour of the 1952 Olympic champion who died earlier this year and who had been an idol and mentor for many Czech throwers over several decades.</p>
<p>Ogrodnikova opened with 61.90m, a metre shy of the mark she achieved in Kladno one week prior. The 29-year-old saved her best for the final round, throwing 64.22m &ndash; her best throw since May 2019. Nikol Tabackova was second with 57.24m, just ahead of Martina Pisova (56.55m).</p>
<p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m happy to throw the third-best mark of the season, but I&rsquo;d like to throw farther later in the season,&rdquo; said Ogrodnikova.</p>
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<p style="margin: 8px 0 0 0; padding: 0 4px;"><a style="color: #000; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CBMIlMKHbAh/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">🎯 Memori&aacute;l Dany Z&aacute;topkov&eacute;🎯 🥇 64,22m #danazatopkova#memori&aacute;ljosefaodložila #praha#javelinthrow</a></p>
<p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;">A post shared by <a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px;" href="https://www.instagram.com/nikolaogrodnikova/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Nikola Ogrodn&iacute;kov&aacute;- Boženka</a> (@nikolaogrodnikova) on <time style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px;" datetime="2020-06-08T21:42:44+00:00">Jun 8, 2020 at 2:42pm PDT</time></p>
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<p>Jakub Vadlejch and Petr Frydrych, the 2017 world silver and bronze medallists respectively, both threw beyond 80 metres in the men&rsquo;s javelin. Vadlejch won with 83.78m while Frydrych set a season&rsquo;s best of 81.22m.</p>
<p>Czech record-holder Radek Juska produced his first eight-metre leap for two years, winning the men&rsquo;s long jump with 8.03m. Jan Veleba won the men&rsquo;s 100m in 10.21, finishing 0.04 ahead of European indoor champion Jan Volko.</p>
<p>One week after finishing an uncharacteristic third over 300m in Kladno, three-time world indoor 400m champion Pavel Maslak stepped further down in distance to the 200m and was victorious in 20.82. Volko was once again 0.04 behind the winner, placing second in 20.86.</p>

European silver medallist Nikola Ogrodnikova produced the standout performance at the Josef Odlozil Memorial in Prague on Monday (8), winning at the World Athletics Continental Tour Bronze meeting with 64.22m.

Ogrodnikova highlights Odlozil Memorial in Prague

<p><strong>Czech javelin thrower Nikola Ogrodnikova has made a major breakthrough this year with a series of top-three finishes on the IAAF Diamond League circuit. The European silver medallist reflects on one catastrophic moment of despair from 11 years ago and one moment of pure elation from earlier this year.</strong></p>
<h3><br />High</h3>
<p>My high moment came earlier this year when for the first time in my career I smashed through the 65-metre barrier (with a personal best of 65.61m) in Potchefstroom, South Africa.</p>
<p>My road to this mark can be traced back to late 2016 when I moved from my home city of Ostrava to be co-coached in Prague by Rudolf Cerny (coach of Barbora Spotakova) and my partner, Vitezslav Vesely (the 2013 world champion).</p>
<p>The combination has worked well and I&rsquo;ve made a lot of technical changes to my throwing, which has given me confidence. My run-up has increased in length and is now a lot more relaxed. I also worked on my fitness with sprints and longer distance running.</p>
<p>I had made many of the changes during the winter of 2016-17 but my body and mind were not quite ready to adjust in competition. However, after another season training under Rudolf and Vitezslav, it was during our annual South African training trip when everything fell into place. In Potchefstroom in April, I achieved a lifetime best of 65.61m, which beat my previous PB by three metres. I was super happy and wanted to cry, but I tried to stop my emotions otherwise I would not have been ready for my next throw.</p>
<p>It had been a long-held dream of mine to throw beyond 65 metres; it was the moment everything changed for me. Now anything seems possible.</p>
<h3><br />Low</h3>
<p>My lowest moment came when no-marking in the shot put when competing in the heptathlon in my home city of Ostrava at the 2007 IAAF World U18 Championships.</p>
<p>It was a very sad moment for me. I was going for victory and, looking back, I could have thrown just seven or eight metres in the shot and still won the gold medal.</p>
<p>I had gone into the competition in great form. At the Czech Championships in Olomouc the previous month, I had scored a heptathlon personal best of 5478 and I held high expectations for the World Youths.</p>
<p>It was great that the competition was in my home city and my mum, dad, grandmother and sister attended as well as friends and an ex-boyfriend. However, my regular coach was not in Ostrava as he was at the European U23 Championships with Denisa Rosolova (the 2012 European 400m hurdles silver medallist) and this made life more difficult.</p>
<p>I made a great start with a PB in the hurdles (13.78) and after a 1.72m high jump I sat second in the competition, 44 points adrift of my teammate Katerina Cachov&aacute;.</p>
<p>In the shot, I recall fouling over the front board with my first attempt. I then made the same mistake with my second throw. I tried to stay calm for the third one, thinking there was no need to stress. However, on my third throw it was like time stopped and suddenly I saw the red flag.</p>
<p>It was a catastrophic moment. I felt numb. A few moments later, when reality sunk in, I started to cry. I spoke on the phone to my coach who told me to stop the competition because a week later I was due to compete at the European Junior Championships, but I was determined to finish the competition and enjoy a lap of honour with the other heptathletes after the 800m.</p>
<p>I continued with the other events and actually put together a good series of results to finish seventh overall with 5161.</p>
<p>I was very disappointed with what happened, but there was silver lining. A week later I competed at the European Junior Championships in Hengelo, where I earned an unexpected bronze medal with a PB of 5607.</p>
<p><strong>Steve Landells for the IAAF</strong></p>

Czech javelin thrower Nikola Ogrodnikova has made a major breakthrough this year with a series of top-three finishes on the IAAF Diamond League circuit. The European silver medallist reflects on one catastrophic moment of despair from 11 years ago and one moment of pure elation from earlier this year.

High and low – Nikola Ogrodnikova

<p>Noah Lyles offered another fluent demonstration at Lausanne&rsquo;s Athletissima IAAF Diamond League fixture tonight (5) that he could be the next big thing in the men&rsquo;s sprints as he equalled his 2018 world-leading time and personal best of 19.69 to win a 200metres stacked with talent from his equally young compatriots.</p>
<p>It was another hugely talented US athlete, Michael Norman &ndash; who won last month&rsquo;s NCAA 400m title in a 2018 world-leading 43.61 and followed up with a 200m victory in Paris last Saturday in 19.84 &ndash; who led into the final straight, but Lyles moved smoothly past his right shoulder over the final 50 metres.</p>
<p>Norman clocked 19.88, with Ecuador&rsquo;s Alex Quinonez third in 20.08, one place ahead of Norman&rsquo;s University of Southern California team-mate Rai Benjamin, winner of his own NCAA title over 400m hurdles in 47.02, who clocked 20.16.</p>
<p>After doing a no doubt carefully choreographed dance of celebration, Lyles pronounced himself &ldquo;very pleased&rdquo; to have matched his best time, although he added: &ldquo;It could have been faster.&rdquo;</p>
<h3>Mihambo edges Spanovic</h3>
<p>Germany&rsquo;s Malaika Mihambo earned a dramatic victory in the women&rsquo;s long jump as, with her last effort, she matched the lead of 6.90m that Olympic bronze medallist Ivana Spanovic had established with her first effort, winning by virtue of a better second jump &ndash; which, at 6.70m, was just three centimetres farther than the Serbian&rsquo;s second best.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
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Malaika Mihambo takes a big win in Lausanne</div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Spanovic, third in this year&rsquo;s world lists with 6.99m, had one final chance to tip the result her way, but could only manage 6.62m.</p>
<p>Colombia&rsquo;s reigning Olympic triple jump champion Caterine Ibarguen did her best to add to the drama as she produced her best of the night with a final effort of 6.77m to take third place.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I am very happy it came together,&rdquo; said Mihambo. &ldquo;The Berlin European Championships are a huge target for me, especially competing at home.&rdquo;</p>
<p>It was a disappointing evening for the two Britons involved &ndash; Shara Proctor was fifth with 6.62m, and Lorraine Ugen, who heads the current world lists with the 7.05m she produced to win the national title last weekend, was seventh with 6.48m.</p>
<p>For Olympic champion Tianna Bartoletta of the United States, however, the evening was even worse as she was unable to start.</p>
<p>The women&rsquo;s pole vault was similarly tight, and won eventually by Greece&rsquo;s world and Olympic champion Katerina Stefanidi, although it needed a season&rsquo;s best of 4.82m for her to do so, with the &ldquo;revitalised&rdquo; 36-year-old London 2012 champion Jenn Suhr of the United States matching her height but taking second place on countback.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
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Katerina Stefanidi takes the win in Lausanne</div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Countback also determined the third-placed competitor, Anzhelika Sidorova, with New Zealand&rsquo;s Eliza McCartney fourth with the best record of four vaulters clearing 4.72m.</p>
<p>McCartney&rsquo;s compatriot, the world shot put champion Tomas Walsh, earned victory in unanswerable fashion with a late effort of 21.92m that rendered all the previous shifts in competition irrelevant.</p>
<h3>Walsh threatens 22 metres</h3>
<p>Darrell Hill of the United States, the defending Diamond League champion, had established an opening lead with an effort of 21.04m, only for Poland&rsquo;s Michal Haratyk to move past him in the fourth round with 21.21m.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
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Tom Walsh in Lausanne</div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>However the blue touch paper was already lit under the Kiwi &ndash;and in round five &ndash; boom! 21.92m. By the way he walked away you knew he knew the job was done, even before the scoreboard confirmed the distance.</p>
<p>Although the man with whom he has boxed-and-coxed for most of the season, US Olympic champion Ryan Crouser, is hors de combat after injuring himself during the national championships, Walsh, who leads the 2018 world list with 22.67m, is ticking all the boxes he can to establish his own pre-eminence.</p>
<p>In the absence of Qatar&rsquo;s world high jump champion Mutaz Barshim, who injured his ankle in attempting a world record height of 2.46m in Hungary on Monday night, Authorised Neutral Athlete Danil Lysenko made the most of his opportunity, winning with a season&rsquo;s best of 2.37m.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
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Danil Lysenko jumps to victory in Lausanne</div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Australia&rsquo;s Brandon Starc and Jeron Robinson of the United States took second and third respectively after clearing 2.29. Italy&rsquo;s Gianmarco Tamberi, still seeking the fitness he lost in a traumatic moment of injury on the brink of the Rio Olympics, cleared 2.25 but finished last on countback.</p>
<h3>One centimetre separates Taylor from Pichardo</h3>
<p>One centimetre was all that separated perennial men&rsquo;s triple jump rivals Christian Taylor and Pedro Pablo Pichardo &ndash; and it was the US world and Olympic champion who did enough to win with a third round of 17.62m that overtook the Cuban&rsquo;s second round lead.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
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Another Lausanne victory for Christian Taylor</div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Shamier Little of the United States won the women&rsquo;s 400m hurdles in a season&rsquo;s best of 53.41 after running neck and neck down the home straight with Jamaica&rsquo;s Janieve Russell, second in a personal best of 53.46 ahead of Little&rsquo;s compatriot Georganne Moline, who clocked 53.90.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
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Shamier Little en route to her 400m hurdles win in Lausanne</div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Nikola Ogrodnikova of the Czech Republic won the women&rsquo;s javelin with a best of 65.02m, although China&rsquo;s Liu Shiying looked briefly as if she might have turned things round with her last effort before it was confirmed as being 64.46.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
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Lausanne javelin throw winner Nikola Ogrodnikova</div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Slovenia&rsquo;s Martina Ratej was third with 63.28.</p>
<p><strong>Mike Rowbottom for the IAAF</strong></p>

Noah Lyles offered another fluent demonstration at Lausanne’s Athletissima IAAF Diamond League fixture tonight (5) that he could be the next big thing in the men’s sprints as he equalled his 2018 world-leading time and personal best of 19.69 to win a 200 metres stacked with talent from his equally young compatriots.

Ogrodnikova highlights Odlozil Memorial in Prague

High and low – Nikola Ogrodnikova

Lyles takes 200m showdown in Lausanne - IAAF Diamond League