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Olympic champion Trine HATTESTAD retired at the end of last season and in her stead has stepped Cuba’s Olympic bronze medallist Osleidys MENENDEZ who has already smashed the Norwegian’s world record of 69.48m with a throw of 71.54m in Rethymno, Greece on 1 July.
MENENDEZ has also thrown more than 68 metres in another two competitions but has been defeated twice, both times by fellow Cubans – she lost to Xiomara RIVERO back in March, at Santiago de Cuba, 65.29m to 64.78m; and to Sonja BISSET, at Madrid on 6 July, 66.54m to 66.38m.
Reigning World Champion Mirela MANJANI-TZELILI of Greece is ranked second in the world this year having thrown 66.70m to win the Athens Grand Prix in June and has backed that throw up with one other 65 metre effort. The 32 year-old Russian champion Tatyana SHIKOLENKO, the world silver medallist in 1999, has also shown good form with a season’s best of 66.09m but has finished second to MENENDEZ on all three occasions they have met. The only other woman over 65 metres this summer is Romania’s Ana Mirela TERMURE, who failed to qualify for the Olympic final in Sydney.
The Czech Republic’s Olympic eighth placer Nikola TOMECKOVA set a new national record of 64.77m to win the European Cup in Bremen in June and has since thrown 63.27m in Madrid. Fellow Olympic finalist Claudia COSLOVICH of Italy was third in Bremen with 63.07m and has a season’s best of 64.30m, and another two competitions over 63 metres.
The only other athlete to show any consistent form this season has been German champion Steffi NERIUS, who finished fifth at the Sydney Olympics and has a year’s best of 63.72m. She was also second at the European Cup with 63.12m.
