Sandra Perkovic is fast cementing her place in history as one of the best women’s Discus thrower ever, recording her 10th career Meeting Record (MR) win at the Rome Diamond League with a throw of 68.93m.
It was another dominant showing from the Croatian who was made to work very hard to secure the victory, especially as she leads in the World Rankings this year with a mark of 71.38m which she threw at the Doha Diamond League.
Cuba’s Yaime Perez was initially leading with a big throw of 66.62m in her second attempt, but Perkovic showed why she was the favourite coming into the competition as she went into the lead in her 4th attempt.
It was a massive throw, 68.93 which saw Perkovic eclipse Tsvetanka Khristova’s Meet Record (MR) of 68.90m, a record that has stood since 1986, four years before Perkovic was even born.
Perkovic held on to that lead till the finish, as Perez settled for 2nd and her compatriot Denia Caballero finished 3rd with a mark of 63.48m.
Meanwhile in the women’s High Jump, Mariya Lasitskene recorded her 14th consecutive winning with a World Lead of 2.02m. The Russian failed an attempt at 1.91m, but when she got it right, she didn’t look back.
Lasitskene in a bid to better the 2.03m MR of Chaunte Lowe, had three attempts at 2.04m which came short of the height. However, her dominance is so pronounced that no athlete is currently jumping up to 2m like her.
Mirela Demireva finished 2nd with 1.94m, while Elena Vallortigara equalled her SB of 1.94m to finish 3rd.
In the men’s Long Jump, South Africa’s Luvo Manyonga emerged tops in the battle with Cuba’s Miguel Echevarria, winning with a WL of 8.58m. The latter settled for 2nd place with a PB of 8.53m while Rushwal Samaai was 3rd with 8.34m
While the men’s Pole Vault, Sam Kendricks won a keen contest over Paweł Wojciechowski, jumping a Season’s Best of 5.84m. Wojciechowski was 2nd with an SB of 5.78m and Raphael Holzdeppe equaling his SB of 5.62m to finish 3rd.
