Szczecin, Poland - Despite low temperatures prevailing in Central Europe in the last few days, the Pedro’s Cup meeting once again provided some hot competition between the world’s top athletes, including four individual Olympic champions from Beijing.

As expected, the highlights of the competition came in the men’s 100 metres and Shot Put. Asafa Powell sped to a Polish all-comers record of 9.89 sec in the sprint, and Christian Cantwell prevailed over Tomasz Majewski in a closely fought contest, sending the shot to 20.92m.

Cold conditions like Stuttgart

The meet, which moved from Warsaw to the Wieslaw Maniak Stadium in Szczecin this year, was the last chance this season to see top stars of the track and field in action in Europe. None of them was more eagerly anticipated in Poland than the former World record holder Asafa Powell, who promised to achieve the first ever sub-ten second clocking on Polish soil.

Undaunted by the cold, the temperature in Szczecin was 12 degrees, similar to that faced in Stuttgart last weekend at the World Athletics Final, the Jamaican had a strong start and continued to run away from his rivals, pushing hard until the end and stopping the clock at 9.89 seconds, a full 0.34 ahead of the second-placed Mike Rodgers (wind speed +1.1m/s).

Until today, the fastest time ever run in Poland stood at 10.00 seconds, achieved by Marian Woronin in Warsaw in 1984 – a time which was the European record at the time and still remains the national record.

Local hero Majewski just misses out

In contrast to the 100 metres, the Shot Put competition did not have a clear statistical favourite even though of course the crowds support was always going to eb behind one man. Poland’s Olympic champion and last weekend’s World Athletics Final winner Tomasz Majewski once again faced the Beijing runner-up Christian Cantwell (USA) and bronze medalist Andrey Mikhnevich (BLR), as well as number two in the world list Reese Hoffa (USA).

Cantwell moved ahead in the first round with 20.54, just ahead of Majewski’s 20.48. The Olympic silver medallist extended his lead in the second round to 20.79, as Hoffa moved into second with 20.49. Majewski, meanwhile, had an attempt very near to 21 metres, which, however, was called a marginal foul. The Americans continued to move further away in the third round, as Cantwell improved to 20.92 and Hoffa threw 20.83.

The Olympic champion, spurred on by the home crowd, closed the competition well, but was not able to gain the lead. His fifth putt went out to 20.63 and in the final attempt, the shot landed at 20.90, a mere 2cm down on Cantwell’s best. Mikhnevich had a disappointing result, finishing down in fifth place with a best of just 19.28.

Poland’s other medallist from Beijing, Piotr Malachowski, was also in action in the Discus Throw, and looked to be the clear favourite after the late withdrawal of multiple global winner Virgilijus Alekna. In contrast to Majewski, he led for good part of the competition with a best of 65.88m in the third round, backed up by 65.68 in the fourth.

This, however, did not prove to be good enough. The Hungarian Zoltan Kovago, Olympic silver medallist 4 years ago, reached out to 67.66 on his fifth attempt and followed it up with another throw in excess of 67 metres in the sixth round. Malachowski, ending his competition with two fouls, had to be content with another second place, just as at the World Athletic Final.

Excellent series for Pyrek

Despite the losses suffered by Poland’s two brightest stars of the season, there was plenty for Polish fans to cheer about. In the women’s Pole Vault competition, which brought together three of the top five from Beijing, Szczecin resident Monika Pyrek had an excellent series of comfortable first-time clearances at 4.30, 4.50 and 4.60.

This proved to be enough on the day to take revenge on two Russians who finished ahead of her in the Olympic Games. Yulia Golubchikova took second place after clearing 4.60 on her second attempt and Svetlana Feofanova finished third with 4.50. Content with winning, Pyrek decided not to take any more attempts on the cold evening after Golubchikova went out at 4.70.

Pyrek was not the only Polish jumper who scored a win over top-class opposition at the Pedro’s Cup. Michal Bieniek, who recently showed great post-Olympic form with a 2.35 in Zamosc, again jumped well with second-time clearances at 2.27 and 2.30. The latter height proved too much for Beijing silver medalist Germaine Mason, the only other jumper left in the competition at that point. Mason thus finished second with a clearance at 2.27, followed by Italy’s Filippo Campioli’s 2.24.

Czapiewski over turns Bungei

If Pyrek’s and Bieniek’s victories were not entirely unexpected, the men’s 800 metres race produced a major upset. Olympic champion Wilfred Bungei was the leader of the pack behind the pacemaker for most of the race, and kept the lead until less than 200 metres from the finish. Then, however, Pawel Czapiewski, bronze medallist of the 2001 World Championships, moved up on his shoulder and overtook him.

Czapiewski, coming back this season after a series of injuries, extended his lead around the bend and easily maintained it in the final straight, despite taking time to look behind him and celebrate. The Pole finished in 1:46.75, over half a second ahead of the reigning Olympic champion, who was closely followed by the Pole Marcin Lewandowski.

Comfortable wins for Beijing hurdle champions

The two women’s hurdles races, both featuring gold medallists from Beijing, did not produce similar surprises. In the one-lap run, Melaine Walker took the lead from the gun, and continued to extend it all the way to the finish. She recorded a swift 54.55, leaving Anna Jesien over 1.5 seconds behind. Dawn Harper won almost as comfortably over the high hurdles, finishing in a time of 12.75. Behind her, Aurelia Trywianska edged the Beijing fourth placer Damu Cherry for second place, 12.93 to 12.96.

Lishchynska prevails

One of the strongest fields of the meet gathered for the women’s 1500 metre race. With the second, third and fourth placed athletes from the Olympic final in attendance, it was hard to predict the winner. In the end, though, Iryna Lishchynska again prevailed over the rivals she beat in Beijing. After a slow race, the Ukrainian stretched away in the finishing straight and won comfortably with 4:10.33. Lisa Dobriskey snatched the second place away from Poland’s Sylwia Ejdys in the final few meters, as the Beijing bronze medalist Natalya Tobias ended up well down in fifth position.

In the women’s short sprint, Olympic finalist Jeanette Kwakye ran 11.35 to score a comfortable win over a field including the American Mikele Barber and her fellow Briton Montell Douglas. Petr Svoboda continued his good form in the 110 metre hurdles after second place at the World Athletic Final, finishing in 13.38, 0.06 ahead of the Olympic fifth place Artur Noga.

In the men’s Pole Vault, three attempts was all it took for the reigning World champion Brad Walker to ensure the win. The American was the only vaulter to clear 5.60. The Olympic bronze medalist Denis Yurchenko finished in runner-up position after clearing 5.50.

Pawel Jackowski for the IAAF

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