Vadim Vasilevskis

Latvia’s 2011 world-leading javelin thrower Vadim Vasilevskis, the 2004 Olympic Games javelin silver medallist, confirmed his good shape with 85.12m at the Riga Cup meeting on Thursday.

Vasilevskis launched his spear out to 88.22m in Estonia last Saturday, more than two metres more than anyone else has thrown in the world this year.

Since his place on the podium in Athens, Vasilevskis has had a series of fourth places at major championships including the 2006 European Athletics Championships, and both the 2007 and 2009 World Championships but he is hoping to get back among the medals at the World Championships in Daegu, South Korea, this summer.

Finishing second behind Vasilevskis in the Latvian capital, there was an impressive national record for Turkey talent Fatih Avan, who improved to 84.69m and also had a throw of 83.30m in his series.

Avan, the 2009 Mediterranean Games champion, had a best of 81.16m before, which was set 11 days ago in Izmir. He turned 22 in January and will be one of Turkey’s main medal hopes at this summer’s European Athletics U23 Championships in Ostrava, Czech Republic, after having finished seventh two years ago in Lithuania.

He became the first Turkish javelin thrower to break the 80-metre barrier when he improved his own national record to 80.19m en-route to winning the under 23 competition at the European Cup Winter Throwing, in March.

Latvia’s Maris Urtans reached 20.33m in the shot put while another local thrower to excel was Lina Muze, the 2010 World Junior Championships javelin silver medallist, who improved her personal best by exactly four metres when she threw a national junior record of 60.64m.

Muze’s effort was the 11th best junior performer ever and fourth best European junior performance.

Still only 18, she is now the clear gold medal favourite for her event at the European Athletics Junior Championships across the border in the Estonian capital Tallinn next month.

source: european-athletics.org