While these competitions are conducted by clubs, all ANSW members are welcome to attend.

ANSW has granted an ANSW permit to four (4) Throwers Club competitions this season.

Dates are:
26 October 2008
14 December 2008
25 January 2009
8 February 2009

The NSW Throwers Club caters for all ages and standards, and is also a meeting place for coaches, and other interested parties to discuss ideas and training techniques. It is a major contributor to the development of young throwers throughout NSW.

The timetable is as follows

10am-Hammer
11.30am- Discus
12.30am- Shot

Cost of entry is $5 per day. For further information, please visit the Throwers Club Website or contact Breanne Clement 0433969627 or bre_clement@hotmail.com

Jörg Probst, October 2006

As the northern hemisphere season came to a close Murofushi's shape kept gaining momentum, after overcoming an injury. He threw 82m to win the World Cup hammer competition.

The opening competition of a new stadium in the Chec Republic on 19 September was a momentous occasion.

In front of 2000 spectators Jan Zelezny ended his long career in his hometown of Mlada Boleslav. The stadium of course is named after the best javelin thrower of all time, where he went out in style with an 82 metre throw. At 246 starts since 1986 he threw in excess of 80m no fewer than 210 times! But Zelezny will not be lost to the sport. He plans to coach and be active in the IAAF. He says he received more from his sport than he ever expected, and he now wants to give back to the sport. He believes that one day his world record will be broken. Not likely, not anytime soon anyway. Modest, unpretentious and down to earth despite his continued success, he will forever be remembered by athletics fans by one of the all-time greats.

Scott Martin has certainly made his mark in Europe this season. At the World Athletics Final he produced a personal best of 20.38 m, ahead of more experienced shot putters. At the World Cup in Athens he impressed again with 20.25m in the shot put and 60.93m.

Dani Samuels was also convincing and finished her international season with 59.68 in 6th place at the on the big stage at the World Cup.

As promised, I can offer all those crazy about the throws a little treat from the European Championships. I have now put a DVD together with 77 throws from 7 events (the women’s javelin being the only exception).

If you want a copy, you must either personally give me a blank DVD-R, and I’ll return it to you next time I see you, or send me a blank DVD-R with a $5 note (don’t forget to include your return address).

To order, please contact me by email at jprobst@ozemail.com.au

This offer is only open until the end of November!

This reporter will return early next year, when the domestic season is in full swing.

Jörg Probst, 09 September 2006

The European Championships turned out to be a feast of throwing. I've attempted to summarise the competitions without being in Göteborg, Sweden. Watch this space for more news about somefootage that may be available on DVD in the not too distant future.

Men's shot put: The first throwing event of this Championship was decided in the last round. No doubt prior performance would have favoured Olsen and Mikhnevich, but German Ralf Bartles pulled it off by just 2cm on his last attempt. It was very tight for the top 3 positions, as 1st was only separated by 4cm from 3rd place, and the performances were impressive. Bartels 21.13, Mikhnevich 21.11, and Olsen 21.09. Dutchman Rutger Smith couldn't crown his so far excellent season with a medal, ending up in 4th place with 20.90m.

Women's hammer: In order to qualify for the final of this event, you needed almost 67m. 2 Russians, 2 Belarussians, 2 Ukrainians were amongst the top 12, and in the finals world record holder Lysenko clinched gold with 76.67m, opening up with 74.85, which would have still won ahead of Khanafeyeva, who was second with 74.50m. The bronze went to Sydney Olympic champion Skolimowska with 72.58m. The winner clearly has the 80m mark in sight. She says she wasn't able to attack the world record because of some technical problems, but she's hoping for some more good competitions this year.

Men's javelin: Another world record was a fitting end to Jan Zelezny's career. Mind you, it was only the Masters 40+ record, but the 85.92m also meant that in his last international championships Zelezny pocketed yet another medal, finishing third behind winner Thorkildsen (88.78m) and Pitkamaki (86.44m). I hope you excuse my editorial bias here when I mention another record achieved in that competition, namely that of Swiss Stefan Müller, who became the first Swiss to throw over 80m yesterday in qualification, and in the final set another new mark in his first attempt with 80.87m finishing in 7th place.

Women's discus: It all seemed like a duel between the two oldies Dietzsch and Grasu, both opening with 63m throws, but in round four Russian Pishchalnikova leapt from 7th position to first with a personal best of 65.55, which proved enough to win. Dietzsch was disappointed, but more with her distance than her placing. If she had come second with 3 or 4 metres more, she would have been satisfied, she explained, and she admits that after a really far throw in the warm-up she tightened up trying to throw such a distance in competition. Apparently it happens to the best.

Women's shot: Well, the big performance I predicted didn't eventuate, but who's disappointed? Khoroneko won with 19.42m ahead of her compatriot Ostapchuk, who came to within 1cm in her 5th attempt. In third was young German Lammert with 19.17m, who had the lead until round four.

Men's hammer: The final started slowly, very slowly actually, because it had to be delayed for a day due to a deluge. And once the competition began, it wasn't until the third round that Tikhon not only broke through the 80m barrier, but his season best 81.11m proved to be the winning mark at the end of the competition. Karjalainen also convinced with a season's best and took silver with 80.84m. Devjatovski won bronze with 80.76m.

Men's discus: The qualification proved to be a bit of a hurdle for hot favourite Alekna, who managed just over 57m in the first round, fouled in the second, before qualifying outright in his last attempt. In the final, the three favourites didn't disappoint. Alekna didn't muck around, and claimed the gold medal with his first attempt (68.67m), following up with 4 more throws over 67m. Even his last throw, when everything was decided, was still 66 and a half metres. An impressive series. Kanter on the other hand opened with a throw just over 61m, before throwing his best of the day with 68.03m. Tammert too had a pretty impressive series with four throws over 65m, which would have all won him the bronze medal. His best was 66.14m.

Women's javelin: The last throwing event of these championships was marred by constant drizzle, but ended in triumph for one of the favourites, Steffi Nerius, who finally won a gold medal at an international.

Jon Harwood

Jörg Probst, 09 August 2006

At the Belarussian national championships the male hammer throwers impressed with 3 athletes over 80m, Vadim Devyatovskiy throwing 81.95 for a new world lead this season. After the competition, the winner had this to say: “I am very pleased with the series. Never before have all six attempts been so fruitful. I did not prepare for this competition too much, but it’s true, that one competition can replace several training sessions. Whether am I ready to throw more? I think, I am." [source IAAF website]

So there you have it. I have long believed that some Australian elite athletes are ill advised to make themselves so rare during the domestic season, even if it is only a smaller competition.

The girlfriend/boyfriend combination of Natalya Khoroneko and Andrey Mikhnevich was very successful in the shot put. She won the women's event with 20.15m, and he threw 3 times over 21m, 21.24m being his best attempt.

It is now official that Natialia Sadova is suspended after a positive drug test. She blames contaminated Russian supplements, but accepts that she took a risk using supplements from her country and does not seek an analysis of the B-sample. As our own Denis Knowles says: "One less to worry about for Dani next year." Just stay away from those Russian supplements, Dani!

On 31 July German hammer thrower Betty Heidler set a new German record with phenomenal 76.55m. This was her fourth record this year.
Recently discus champ Alekna has hurled the discus a phenomenal 71.08m, which makes him the only one to have thrown over 70m three times. He is a clear favourite to win the European title, which is still missing in his collection.

Speaking of which... The European Championships will be held between August in Stockholm, and in my next report I will report mainly on these championships.

And finally something encouraging for the oldies amongst us who are still chucking away, more or less successfully. Age-defying German Peter Esenwein hurled the javelin to 83.74m. The guy is something like 38 years old, and keeps improving.

Jon Harwood

Jörg Probst, 4 July 2006

Can you imagine a discus flying over 80m? Well, on 10 June a 15-year old Ukrainian by the name of Mykyta Nesterenko hurled the 1kg implement to a new world best mark of 81.22m.

At the same meet in his Lithuanian home town Vilnius, Virgilijus Alekna scraped the 70m mark again, and this despite a tailwind!

On 16 June Franka Dietzsch's discus sailed to 68.51m, her third-best performance in her long career. At the same meet in Schönbeck, where the discus throwers enjoyed favourable wind conditions, Lars Riedel threw 68.40m, his second-best performance of the season.

In the women's hammer, the Germans have another 70m thrower in Kathryn Klaas, who achieved a new PB on 11 June with 70.62m.

Only a day later, Gulfiya Khanafeyeva set a new world record at the Russian Championships with 77.26. But that one didn’t last long: Her rival Tatyana Lysenko regained the world record on 24 June. It now stands at 77.41m. Lysenko thinks 80m are a possibility, but won’t speculate as to when that mark will be broken. Considering there are at least three Russian full time professionals chasing each other, surely it will be sooner rather than later.

Jon Harwood

Regardless of the freezing and blustery conditions, the first throwers club for 2006 saw a good turn out of 23 thowers from across Sydney, Wollongong, and even Dubbo!

Jörg Probst, 8 June 2006

On 6 June 2006 it was the 20th anniversary of one of the oldest world records. Assisted by a friendly breeze, discus legend Jürgen Schult hurled the 2kg disc 74.08m at a meet in Neubrandenburg, East Germany. Only in the year 2000 the mark was seriously challenged by the presently best discus thrower, Virgiljus Alekna from Lithuania, who achieved 73.88m. Apparently Alekna is in splendid form this year and has stated that he can break Schult's record. He has already thrown close to 70m this season, and German coaches claim to have seen Alekna throw 76m at a training camp in Portugal. But there may be other serious contenders: Estonian Alexander Tammert leads the world list with 70.84m, and Hungarian Zoltan Kovago is second with 69.95. The European Championships are without a doubt the highlight of this year, and with an in-form Lars Riedel we can expect some more pretty impressive performances, and an exciting fight for the medal placings. Our own discus ballerina Scott Martin is also making a mark in his first European campaign, going close to his personal bests both in the shot put (over 20m) and in the discus (over 63m).

Koji Murofushi is back in shape and injury-free. He proved this with an impressive performance at a meeting in Prague, throwing the shot on a wire 79.57m on 5 June.

On 6 June, Norwegian Andreas Thorkildsen impressed with a javelin throw of 91.59m at his home IAAF meet in Oslo. Oldie Jan Zelezny is still at it, and not just an also-ran with a season's best of 86m. Boris Henry has also returned from injury but has had a slow start to the season. If you're wondering what happened to the other German javelin icon Raymond Hecht: He has quietly retired to the French south coast with his wife, throwing the occasional jav just for fun.

In the men's shot, the Americans continue to dominate the event, with their top 4 guys all surpassing 21m so far. Leading the rankings is Christian Cantwell, who has surpassed 22m twice already.

Since the glory days of Astrid Kumbernuss, the women's shot put scene hasn't seen much to be admired, certainly nothing that could be described as remotely aesthetic. Young Kiwi Valerie Vili may turn things around in this event, currently leading the world rankings with 20.20m. But one can be forgiven to suspect that the Eastern European "women" will come out in force to flex their muscles closer to the European Championships.

Meanwhile the world standard in the women's hammer throw continues to be redefined each season. So far 18 throwers have already thrown beyond the 70m mark, Russian Gulfiya Khanafeyeva leading with over 76m. Just last weekend German Betty Heidler lived up to her potential to smash the German record with 75.16m.