CHORZOW, Poland — Poland heroes Anita Włodarczyk and Wojciech Nowicki, Tom Walsh of New Zealand and American Chris Nilsen were among the highlighted performers in the field events at the 2022 Orlen Janusz Kusocinski Memorial meeting held at the Stadion Slaski in Chorzow, Poland on Sunday (5).
Anita Włodarczyk put together a very good series of throws en route to winning the women’s hammer event with her best effort on the day measuring at 75.76m. The Polish Olympic champion opened the competition with a mark of 73.59m and improved that effort throughout the contest, while heaving the winning measure in the third round.
Włodarczyk has been busy this season and the 36-year-old collected her fourth win of the 2022 campaign on Sunday after picking up victories in previous meetings in Antalya, Nairobi and Bydgoszcz. Read more: How to watch the 2022 Orlen Janusz Kusocinski Memorial in Chorzow?
Malwina Kopron opened the competition with a scratch, but the Olympic bronze medalist returned to throw 74.06m in the second round before spinning out to 75.08m in the third for a season best and runner up spot behind her Poland teammate.
Ewa Różańska, 21, continued her improving form this season after she threw 71.31m in the first round to complete the Poland podium sweep at home with a third place finish.
Różańska also had marks of 70.19m, 70.36m, and 70.38m in the second, fourth and sixth rounds that were much better than her previous PB of 67.46m, set in 2021 in Split.
Meanwhile, Tokyo Olympic champion Wojciech Nowicki of Poland stole the victory in the last round of the men’s contest after he threw a season best of 81.58m in the sixth and final round to improve his own world leading mark in the end.
World silver medalist Quentin Bigot of France produced a new lifetime best of 80.55m in the fourth round to take the lead from Nowicki, who had thrown 80.16m in the third round.
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However, the Polish home hero saved his best throw for the last round as he tossed the implement out to 81.58m to extend his 2022 world best and delight the home supporters.
Another Poland star Paweł Fajdek, the four-time reigning world champion, finished third on the day with a measure of 79.62m. Fajdek led the competition through the opening round after his first time effort of 77.96m, but he was unable to break into the 80m mark today.
TOM WALSH BEATS JOE KOVACS AGAIN!
An exciting men’s Shot Put contest was determined in the third round with Tom Walsh of New Zealand finishing on top to collect his second straight head-to-head win over two-time reigning world champion Joe Kovacs of USA.
Walsh, the 2017 world champion in London, punched out an impressive 22.31m in round three of the contest to extend his lead on the day and also set a season best and meeting record.
The two-time World Indoor champion, twice bronze medalist at Olympic Games and Commonwealth Games champion, also had marks of 21.11m, 21.70m, 21.88m and 21.20m in his highlighting series of throws.
American Kovacs, who was beaten by the New Zealander in Bydgoszcz in midweek, had to settle for second place again on Sunday, but threw a quality 22.00m in the fourth round to seal the runner up spot.
Konrad Bukowiecki of Poland, the 2017 European Indoor champion wrapped up third place with a season best throw of 21.66m effort in round two.
The women’s long jump decision was determined by the best second jump after two competitors finished the competition with identical marks on the leaderboard.
Milica Gardašević of Serbia and Agate De Sousa of Sao Tome & Principe both leaped 6.81m on the day so the judges had to rollback to the next best marks between the two.
In the end, Gardašević, the 2017 European Junior champion secured the win with her new personal best —improving on her 6.69m previous PB effort in Kalamáta, last month.
It was also a good day for De Sousa after she set a new Sao Tome & Principe national record for the second time this season. Canadian Christabel Nettey rounded out the top three with a jump of 6.48m in the second round.
In the meantime, in the men’s pole vault event, USA’s Chris Nilsen cleared a new meeting record of 5.92m to capture the top spot and increased the old mark by Renaud Lavillenie of France of 5.91m.
The Olympic silver medalist made three attempts at a new North American record height at 6.07m, but he was unsuccessful today.
Lavillenie finished second on Sunday with a clearance of 5.81m with third going to Norway’s Pål Haugen Lillefosse who went over a new personal best height of 5.81m as well.
