An entertaining and powerful display of consistency by hometown hero Sandra Perkovic and a breakthrough 200m performance by Ramil Guliyev highlighted the 65th Hanzekovic Memorial in the Croatian city of Zagreb on Tuesday (8).
The penultimate IAAF World Challenge meeting for 2015 saw Perkovic competing for the first time since her runner-up finish at last month’s IAAF World Championships, Beijing 2015. She threatened the 70-metre line three times, with a best of 69.88m, the fifth farthest throw in the 25-year-old’s already illustrious career.
Perkovic got out the rust with an impressive 69.77m effort in round three and also reached 68.95m in the fifth round before closing out the competition with her winning toss in round six.
“I’m extremely happy today,” said the reigning Olympic champion and 2013 world championships gold medallist, who finally claimed the meet record in her country’s biggest athletics competition.
“I really wanted this record. This year, I wasn’t injured and the conditions and the crowd were excellent.”
But, she added, “I expected an even better result,” something closer to 71 metres, a distance that is now her target at the IAAF Diamond League final in Brussels on Friday where she’s expected to face Cuba’s world champion and world leader Denia Caballero.
Germany’s Julia Fischer was a distant second at 63.16m, ahead of compatriot Nadine Muller, the Beijing bronze medallist again finishing third with 61.85m.[:]