Already the sixth furthest thrower of alltime, thanks to his 91.53m PB in June of this year, Finn Tero Pitkämäki cemented his growing reputation with the third 90m+ throw of his young career. His 91.33 effort in the second round was a beautiful throw and the 22-year-old knew it at the very moment of release. No need this time to splat his body against the runway as is the characteristic last motion of his style.
It was no surprise that Pitkämäki's effort, a WAF record, did more than hang on to the win in the remaining two rounds of this four throw event and the Finn duly backed up his win with 85.14 and 87.88m throws. However, Olympic gold medallist Andreas Thorkildsen was also on great form approaching the Finn’s lead with 89.60, a new Norwegian record in the third round. It was quite an improvement from his previous 87.75m but one which has been expected and deserved for sometime.
2003 World champion Sergey Makarov (RUS) opened best this afternoon with 84.85, with Thorkildsen and Pitkämäki’s opening 83.54 and 83.30 performances the next furthest. Round two and three as already described brought the fireworks from these two Nordic throwers but what should not be lost is that Makarov was also in fine fettle, 86.50, 84.85 and 86.69, following his opening gambit, to secure third.
Pitkämäki and Thorkildsen, also finished well with 85.54 and 87.66.
Behind the top three places, Czech Jan Zelezny took fourth (83.98 - season's best) and Mark Frank of Germany secured 5th with the only other 80m throw (81.81).
World champion Andrus Värnik was eighth and last with 76.11m
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