Poland's Anita Wlodarczyk in action in the hammer (© Getty Images)
Returning to the scene of her record-breaking feats from 11 months ago, world champion Anita Wlodarczyk threatened her own world record when winning at the Kamila Skolimowska Throws Festival in Cetniewo on Tuesday (12).
Although her winning mark of 80.26m fell just 82 centimetres shy of her world record, Wlodarczyk produced one of the best series in hammer-throwing history as all five of her valid throws were beyond 79 metres.
The 30-year-old opened with 79.58m and then improved to a world-leading 79.67m in round two, backing it up with 79.62m in the third round. After a foul in round four, she produced her winning mark of 80.26m in the fifth round before ending her series with 79.39m.
Joanna Fiodorow, the 2014 European bronze medallist, finished second but was more than 10 metres adrift with a best of 70.12m.
Wlodarczyk’s fellow world champion Pawel Fajdek won the men’s hammer, but his victory wasn’t quite as clear-cut. He fouled his two opening efforts and then threw 76.24m in the third round to trail world and European bronze medallist Wojciech Nowicki by 48 centimetres.
Fajdek landed another foul in the fourth round but then uncorked his winning effort of 81.59m in round five to extend his winning streak to 28 finals.
Elsewhere in Cetniewo, world champion Piotr Malachowski comfortably won the discus with 67.16m, beating world bronze medallist Robert Urbanek and European junior champion Bartlomiej Stoj, who threw 65.07m and 63.81m respectively.
In the shot put, world junior champion Konrad Bukowiecki threw 22.61m with the 6kg U20 implement, while two-time Olympic champion Tomasz Majewski won the senior event with 20.07m.
Jon Mulkeen for the IAAF
