Hammer Throw Challenge Recap
The International Association of Athletics Federations World Hammer Throw Challenge in Monte-Carlo has rounded off its inaugural season with tension-filled energy. Koji Murofushi of Japan and Betty Heidler of Germany took the top prize of $30,000 after a hard-fought season against their rivals.
Murofushi, the 2004 Olympic champion, found a surge of momentum during the last two events to score a distance of 80.96m, knocking out Dilshod Nazarov. Though Nazarov scored three series victories – one more than Murofushi – the Japanese beat the Tajikistani by two meters which became a turning point for the final scores, earning him a total of 238.52 points. Nazarov finished in second with an excruciatingly close 236.02 pts, followed by Slovakia’s Libor Charfreitag at 235.26 pts.
In the women’s events, 2007 World Champion Betty Heidler defeated Anita Wlodarczyk of Poland to top the rankings at 225.88 pts, with Anita sitting at 225.3. The frustratingly close scoring is typical of the competition between champs Heidler and Wlodarczyk, who have tossed the gold back and forth in recent battles. While Heidler’s trophy case boasts gold for the 2007 World Championships in Osaka, the European Championships in Barcelona, and the Universiade in Belgrade, Wlodarczyk beat Heidler to gold in Berlin for the 2009 World Championships. Though later claiming only bronze in Barcelona, Wlodarczyk’s potential has been consistently on the rise for the most part, breaking several of her records to earn a personal best score of 78.30 during her time in Bydgoszcz. Yet the Pole simply could not keep up to Heidler this time round, who beat her in the IAAF challenge by almost a meter.
In third came Russia’s Tatyana Lysenko, who earned a total of 223.96.
The IAAF World Hammer Throw Challenge consists of eleven events with seven scoring chances, of which athletes are required to compete in at least three to obtain their highest three scores for tallying. A grand amount of $202,000 – $101,000 for Men and Women each – is awarded. According to the IAAF, the prizes are awarded as follows: 1st place: $30,000 - 2nd place: $20,000 - 3rd place: $14,000 - 4th place: $9000 - 5th place: $7000 - 6th place: $6000 - 7th place: $4500 - 8th place: $4000 - 9th place: $3000 - 10th place: $2000 - 11th place: $1000 - 12th place: $500. The event occurs in various venues across the globe, including Reiti, Monte-Carlo, and Dakar.
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