Sweden’s Patricia Kamga won a highly entertaining and competitive U23 women’s hammer with a lifetime best of 69.76m on the second day of the European Throwing Cup in Nicosia on Sunday (15).
Hungary’s Jazmin Csatari led proceedings after three rounds with a lifetime best of 66.89m but she was ultimately shunted down into fourth and out of the medals over the course of the second half of the competition.
Spain’s Andrea Sales took the lead in the fourth round with a national U20 record of 68.91m before Kamga, who was struggling for consistency on a blustery morning in Nicosia, launched her fifth round throw out to an unassailable mark of 69.76m.
Sales responded gamely with a final round throw of 68.22m, which was also in excess of her previous lifetime best and national U20 record of 67.51m, with France’s Florella Frayche setting her best mark of 67.33m in the sixth round to win the bronze medallist.
Patricia follows in the footsteps of her sister Vanessa Kamga who won the discus last year and will be defending her title later on this afternoon.
"Vanessa is my biggest idol and my best friend, and she is such a big inspiration for me in this sport, so I like being associated with her. I do not have any issue with this, but, eventually, I want to have my own name.
"I think everything I know in the sport comes from her. She is such a good competitor and I think that is what I have learnt from her. Hopefully, she will get a medal, too. We are just besties!" she said.
However, there was a note of disappointment for the hosts as home favourite Valentina Savva, who is the only athlete in the field to have broken the 70 metre-barrier, could only finish fifth with 65.46m.
Brudin clinches long-awaited U23 discus title
On his fourth attempt, Ukraine’s Mykhailo Brudin finally won the U23 men’s discus title at the European Throwing Cup.
The 21-year-old thoroughly dominated proceedings, taking the lead in the first round with 56.14m before improving to 57.80m in the third round and then concluding his series with a European U23 leading mark of 58.55m.
The Spanish-based Ukrainian won by almost two metres from Switzerland’s Philipp Schmidli (56.62m) and Hungary’s Zsombor Dobo (55.33m).
"Winning at the European Throwing Cup gives me confidence for the new season. My goal is to get closer to 65 metres and set a new personal best," said Brudin.
All three throwers will still be eligible to participate in the U23 division at the 2027 European Throwing Cup which will return to Nicosia.
Close to 80 metres for Vyska
Jan Vyska began what was an excellent day for Czechia with victory in a high quality U23 men's javelin which saw four of the top five athletes come away with lifetime bests.
Vyska launched the javelin out to 79.71m in the second round for victory ahead of Ryan Jansen who improved the Dutch U23 record to 78.81m and then to 78.86m in the sixth round with European U20 champion Rafael Mahiques from Spain third with 77.31m.
However, the worsening conditions marred the latter half of a high calibre competition. In fact, Jansen's Dutch U23 record of 78.86m was the only valid mark to be recorded by any of the top eight throwers over the course of the fifth and sixth rounds.
European U23 bronze medallist Helena Kopp from Germany won the U23 shot put title with 16.29m ahead of 19-year-old European U20 champion Maria Rafailidou from Greece with 16.04m.