Koji Murofushi throwing in Rieti (© Victah Sailer)
The IAAF World Challenge meeting in Rieti, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this weekend, got off to a fine start yesterday (28) with a special qualifying event in the Hammer Throw at which Japan’s 2004 Olympic champion Koiji Murofushi blasted out a world season leading 80.99m.
Yesterday’s three rounds served as qualification for the four best throwers in both the men's and women's categories of the IAAF Hammer Throw Challenge with the final three rounds scheduled on Sunday afternoon (29) during the main Rieti meeting.
Until Murofushi’s release the world leader in 2010 had been the Slovak Republic's European champion Libor Charfreitag with the 80.59m set back in April; yesterday he was second with 79.27. Also qualifying for the Sunday's second stage were Sergey Litvinov of Germany (78.32) and IAAF Hammer Challenge leader Dilshod Nazarov (78.02).
Former World champion Yipsi Moreno was best in the women’s event with 71.32m ahead of Russian Tatyana Lysenko (71.27), Polish World champion and record holder Anita Wlodarczyk (70.89) and Chinese record holder Zhang Wenxiu (70.76).
IAAF
