Anita Wlodarczyk with her world record figures in Cetniewo
Anita Wlodarczyk smashed her own world record* in the hammer, throwing 81.08m at the Kamila Skolimowska Memorial Throws Festival in Cetniewo on Saturday (1).
The Pole opened with a foul but soon made amends in the second round, sending her implement out way beyond the 80-metre line. She knew instantly that she had broken the world record and become the first woman to throw beyond 80 metres, and moments later the distance flashed up on the scoreboard – 81.08m.
It added exactly one-and-a-half metres to her own world record of 79.58m set last year in Berlin, making it the biggest single improvement on the women’s hammer world record since 1999.
“I have been waiting for this moment so long, this is an unbelievable feeling to be the first woman to throw over 80m,” said the 29-year-old European champion after setting the fourth world record of her career. “I'm so happy, especially as I have done it at the competition which is dedicatated to my friend, Kamila Skolimowska (the late 2000 Olympic champion).”
After all the excitement of breaking the world record in the early stages of the competition, Wlodarczyk regained her composure to complete a consistent series with throws of 79.07m, 78.53m, 76.61m and 77.83m. Alexandra Tavernier of France finished second with 73.33m.
On what was a good day for the host nation’s throwers, world champion Pawel Fajdek won the men’s hammer with 82.07m, once again comfortably defeating Olympic champion Krisztian Pars. The Hungarian finished second with a season’s best of 79.91m.
Two days after winning at the IAAF Diamond League meeting in Stockholm, Piotr Malachowski threw a world-leading 68.29m in the discus.
Double Olympic champion Tomasz Majewski was an easy winner of the shot, throwing 20.78m, while European junior champion Maria Andrejczyk set a Polish junior record of 62.11m to win the javelin, taking her to third on the world junior all-time list.
Jon Mulkeen for the IAAF
*subject to the usual ratification procedures
