Hammer throw (© Getty Images)
Egypt’s Mostafa Al-Gamel added 66cm to the African hammer record on Friday (21), throwing a world-leading 81.29m.
Making his 2014 season debut at a low-key competition in Cairo, the 25-year-old added more than three metres to his previous best of 77.73m, set last year at the Solidarity Games.
In breaking the African record of 80.63m that had been set by South Africa’s Chris Harmse in 2005, Al-Gamel also surpassed the Egyptian record of 78.21m, set last year by compatriot Hassan Mohamed Mahmoud.
Al-Gamel did not compete at last year’s IAAF World Championships in Moscow, but won the Mediterranean Games title earlier in the summer. He is also the 2011 All-Africa Games champion and represented Egypt at the 2011 World Championships and 2012 Olympics.
Al-Gamel has now put himself in the frame as one of the early favourites for the IAAF Continental Cup in Marrakech at the end of the summer.
Jon Mulkeen for the IAAF
