News07 Sep 2003


Yipsi Moreno and Adrian Annus first IAAF World Athletics Final Victors

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Yipsi Moreno in action (© IAAF)

Szombathely, HungaryHammer Throwers Yipsi Moreno of Cuba and Adrian Annus of Hungary this evening became the first medallists in the inaugural edition of the IAAF World Athletics Final.

With the major part of the programme of the 1st IAAF World Athletics Final scheduled to take place in Monte Carlo next weekend, 13-14 September, but technical reasons preventing the Hammer Throw from taking place in Monaco’s Louis II stadium, the competition was staged here in Szombathely, reckoned by hammer throwers the world over to be the Mecca of the discipline.

There are certainly few other places around the world where the Hammer Throw can attract such an enthusiastic crowd as the 6,000 or so spectators who flocked to the IAAF Accredited Training Centre here to follow the competition and cheer on their local favourite Adrian Annus.

Their support worked wonders for Annus, who had stated his determination to take the highest step of the podium before his home crowd.

After a sedate start to the competition, with all of the eight competitors under 80 metres and fouls from Libor Charfreitag (SVK), Koji Murofushi (JPN) and Karsten Kobs (GER), the men got down to business as Annus, throwing last but one hurled his hammer out to 81.11 metres and gaining an immediate advantage over the rest of the field, where, once again, none of the others could get beyond the 80 metre barrier.

Round three came around and Annus closed the door on his challengers with a massive 82.10 metres. Neo-World Champion Ivan Tikhon (BLR) showed some improvement in this round, becoming the first other than Annus to go over 80 metres with an effort of 80.84.

After a foul at his fourth attempt, Annus decided to let the competition go on as he watched from the sidelines, as he remained unchallenged, despite a last round attempt of 81.22 from Charfreitag that took the Slovak into second place, as Tikhon was unable to improve on his third round throw with his final effort that fell one centimetre short of that mark.

Japan’s Koji Murofushi had a consistent competition, but was unable to go over 80 metres and is still recovering from a bout of tendonitis that also hampered his efforts in Paris.

The women’s competition was dominated just as convincingly by World Champion Yipsi Moreno, as she finished with an advantage of nearly two and half metres over her nearest rival.

Described by Yuriy Sedikh, whose world record in the men’s Hammer Throw has stood for 17 years, as the finest female exponent of the discipline and someone who “with a very little fine-tuning, could become the first women to go over 80 metres”, Moreno was superb this afternoon.

Other than fouling her two final efforts as she let loose, once she was assured that victory was hers, the 22 year-old gave a fine demonstration of speed and coordination in each of her throws.

Starting with 71.68, which itself would have won her the competition, Moreno went on to produce her best effort of 73.42, followed by two more throws over 70 metres.

Meanwhile the rest of the field were playing catch-up, led by World Championships silver medallist Olga Kuzenkova (RUS), whose best effort came in the first round, a throw of 71.16 that she was unable to better as the competition continued.

World record holder Mihaela Melinte (ROM) was nearly two metres short of that measure with her best attempt in the third round of 69.27, whilst France’s Manuela Montebrun, who had been the early season’s leader in the event with 74.50 metres thrown in Villeneuve d’Ascq in June, was clearly off her best form this afternoon and could manage no more than 68.88 in her second round.

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