European Championships 2022: A Throwers Recap
BY THROWERS UNIVERSE
Europe’s premier athletics event, the European Championships, only comes around once every two years and is always extremely popular within the athletics community. With the rich history in the throws that the European nations possess, Munich 2022 was nothing short of gripping for fans.
Here is a recap of the throws!
MEN'S SHOT PUT
On day one of the European Championships, the Men’s Shot Put Qualifying Rounds featured Great Britain’s Scott Lincoln, U23 World Record holder Konrad Bukowiecki, European Indoor Champion Tomas Stanek, Track & Field’s newest showman Nick Ponzio and many more.
Armin Sinančević led qualifying by around half a metre and looked like a strong medal prospect heading into the finals.
It took 19.91m to make the top 12 for what looked to be a competitive final…
A surprise from the qualifying round came via Bob Bertemes, who failed to make the finals despite his personal best of 22.22m.
The final came around at 9pm that same day which saw Croatian Filip Mihaljević go 21.88m to take the European Gold medal in Germany. Mihaljević’s former coach Martin Maric (UVA), has stated time and time again that Filip has had fouls well over 22m dating years back, so for Filip to perform on the European stage was nothing short of impressive for his team. Maric labelled Mihaljević’s competition-winning throw ‘effortless’.
Stanek took the bronze medal for the Czech Republic with a throw of 21.26m, while Sinančević threw 21.39m for a silver medal. Nick Ponzio threw 20.98m for fourth place, just missing out on a medal. He expressed his disappointment in an Instagram post despite his impressive rise to the global scene over the last few years…
WOMEN'S SHOT PUT
Following the men’s Shot Put qualifying was the women’s competition. It featured three British athletes: Sophie McKinna, Amelia Strickler and Divine Oladipo. Lined up along these athletes were Europe’s leading throwers Auriol Dongmo, Jorinde van Klinken and Jessica Schilder. This competition was set to be extremely competitive.
Dongmo led qualifying with 19.32m. McKinna claimed the 12th spot for the finals in her first year rotating, making her the only British athlete to qualify for the women’s Shot Put finals…
As the competition unfolded, Schilder and Dongmo went back and forth with huge throws beyond 19m until Schilder went huge with a European leading mark of 20.24m. This solidified her place in the gold medal position to back up her 2022 campaign. Auriol Dongmo came 2nd with 19.82m for silver, with Jorinde van Klinken (also a 70m discus thrower) coming in 3rd with 18.954m.
WOMEN'S DISCUS THROW
In the women’s Discus, Sandra Perković continued her reign of dominance over Europe to take her fifth consecutive European gold medal (67.95m). Kristin Pudenz came up just short of the gold medal with a personal best of 67.87m, with Claudine Vita taking bronze with 65.20m, Pudenz and Vita collecting two medals for Germany. Germany took a brief backseat in the throws after dominating for so long – but it looks like they are back and here to stay…
MEN'S DISCUS THROW
Men’s discus proved to shock fans as 19-year-old Mykolas Alekna claimed the European title over World Champion Kristjan Čeh with a Championship Record of 69.78m. This victory continued his dominant season, highlighting a never-before-seen calibre and level of consistency for an athlete of his age in the event.
Čeh took an impressive silver medal, and Great Britain’s own Lawrence Okoye took bronze with a ten-year season’s best of 67.14m. Okoye’s story is a fascinating one, which highlights that he was one of the leading throwers in the world as a teenager. He quit the sport very early to take up a career in the NFL. He has recently made his way back to throwing discus and is already back at the world level and beyond…
Okoye’s bronze medal story is nothing short of greatness…
After failing to win a world medal, dominant Swedish thrower Daniel Ståhl also failed to make the European Championships podium. It must be stated that Ståhl is one of, if not the most proven and consistent throwers in the world – so watch out for a big throw from him very soon…
What an event Munich 2022 was! Full of shocks and surprises, and it looks like the European throwing scene is only getting better as time goes on…
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