Rutger reigns at the European Cup Winter Throwing 18. March 08

The second day of competition at the European Cup Winter Throwing in Split did not enjoy the same sunny weather as Saturday, but the competition lost none of its excitement!

Dutch favourite Rutger Smith took an expected win in the men's Shot Put, but German World Champion Betty Heidler lost the battle for the women's Hammer title. Experienced Romanian Nicoleta Grasu won Discus gold and Russia's Ilya Korotkov took a surprise win in the men's Javelin, while the team competitions were taken by Italy's women and Russia's men.

The Netherlands' 2005 World silver medallist Rutger Smith dominated the men's Shot Put event with a powerful 20.77m throw, but the remaining podium places caused a stir when Portugal's Marco Fortes achieved a new Portuguese record of 20.13m and Hamza Alic from Bosnia and Hercegovina matched this impressive throw. The colour of medal was decided by each participant's second attempt, with 25-year-old Fortes taking silver and Alic settling for bronze (19.13m-18.15m). Finland´s Robert Haggblom was fourth (20.06m) and Slovenian World finalist Miran Vodovnik finished fifth with 19.77m.

The day's big surprise came in the women's Hammer, where World Champion Betty Heidler's 71.10m throw was only enough for the silver medal. Gold went to Poland's 2007 European Junior ninth placer Anita Wlodarczyk, who broke the 70m mark for the first time in her career with her 71.84m and 71.38m throws. Kathrin Klaas added another medal to the German collection with her 69.04m throw that narrowly beat Ireland's Osaka 6th placer Eileen O´Keefe (68.56m) to the bronze medal.

Romanian veteran and Gothenburg 2006 bronze medal winner Nicoleta Grasu was the only Discus thrower to break the 60m mark today with her 60.25m throw. French record holder Melina Robert-Michon took silver in 59.93m and Serbian record holder Dragana Tomasevic completed the women's Discus podium with her 59.64m throw.

Russian Ilya Korotkov surprised all the pundits by achieving the second 80m+ mark of his career. The 24-year-old's 81.62m throw was enough to win the men's Javelin, while German Osaka qualifier Stephan Steding took silver for his 79.55m throw and Estonian Mihkel Kuuk made a huge improvement to take bronze with his 78.41m personal best.

In the U23 events, there was a meeting record for Ukrainian Javelin winner Roman Avramenko whose 78.72m throw would have been enough for bronze in the senior competition. There was an unusual British Discus win for Eden Francis (55.90 PB), Lajos Kurthy of Hungary took the Shot Put title with 19.30m and Russian Mariya Bespalova won gold in the Hammer (66.13 m).

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