Heidler wins with world-class throw in ostrava – 78.07 m

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At the athletics meeting in ostrava, the 28-year-old won with a world-class distance of 78.07 meters, ahead of wenxiu zhang from china (76.99), who finished third in the world championships, and anita wlodarczyk from poland (74.81). "I am of course happy about this result," said heidler. For the 2011 world championship runner-up it was already the fourth victory in her fourth competition of this olympic season.

Heidler missed her own world record from last year (79.42) in ostrava by a good one and a half meters, the world best performance of the woman from russia aksana miankova (78.19) only by twelve centimeters. "I still don’t feel technically as confident as last year, but i’m in better shape," she said.

The frankfurt native nevertheless held back with a clear statement in the direction of the olympic games in london. "There is the same target every year", she said. "To win a medal at the highlight of the year and at the same time to always try to improve your personal best performance."

Last year heidler was also the favorite at the world championships in daegu, where she was surprisingly beaten by tatjana lysenko. The russian was absent in ostrava as well as the world best miankova. Kathrin klaas from frankfurt finished fifth with 72.25 meters.

In the men’s event markus esser took fourth place. The fourth of the world championships from leverkusen with 77,27 meters fulfilled the norm for the european championships at the end of june in helsinki. However, he was 73 centimeters short of the olympic standard. "Things are looking up, definitely," esser said nonetheless. "The first three competitions this year did not go well at all, so today was a step in the right direction. The european championship standard is ticked off, now i have enough competitions left to push myself towards the olympic standard."

In a strong competition the world championship runner-up krisztian pars from hungary won with the meeting record of 82.28 meters ahead of the young polish pawel fajdek (80.36). The main part of the ostrava meeting with the start of sprint star usain bolt will take place on friday evening.