The expected headtohead clash and 12 Team Europe finish from Piotr Malachowski and Robert Harting did not quite work out at the IAAF / VTB Bank Continental Cup as Team Asia-Pacific landed a surprise by placing both of their athletes in the top three.
World Champion Harting led from the outset, opening with 65.52m. Then came the surprise of the competition as Australia’s Benn Harradine unleashed an Oceanian Record of 66.45m, breaking his own mark set two years ago.
Harting snatched the lead back right away with a throw of 66.85m, and followed it up with 66.07m in round three for good measure. Harradine responded well with throws of 64.90m and 65.20m, but it was not quite enough to catch the German on this occasion.
Nevertheless, Harradine scored valuable points for Team Asia-Pacific, as did Iran’s Ehsan Hadadi, who threw 64.55m for third. European Champion Piotr Malachowski could only manage 64.20m in fourth place, enough to hold off Jason Young of Team Americas, who threw 61.33m. Cuba’s Jorge Fernandez was sixth (61.18m) and Egypt’s Omar El Ghazaly threw 60 metres exactly for seventh.
Jon Mulkeen for the IAAF
