Lysenko wins Ostrava Hammer while Isinbayeva and Borzakovskiy lead European charge tonight 27. June 07

Last weekends SPAR European Cup champion Tatyana Lysenko, gave further indication of her ability and talent when she emerged the clear victor at lasts nights hammer competition at the Golden Spike Grand Prix in Ostrava.

Lysenko's winning throw was eventually measured at 77.71m, which was the third longest throw in the history of the event and a distance that only she has thrown further than.

Her European and World record currently stands at 78.61m and it looks like being a matter of time before this mark comes under attack again.

Germany's Betty Heidler repeated her second place finish in Munich at the weekend behind Lysenko, throwing 73.74m, slightly improving from her performance at the SPAR European Cup.

In the men's competition, double World champion Ivan Tikhon showed he will be favourite to win his third world crown in Osaka in August when he threw 80.19m to comfortably win ahead of Slovakian Libor Charfreitag, with 79.76m.

Although the hammer took place last night the main action on the track will be this evening where a number of European hopefuls will be in action.

European, World and Olympic Pole vault champion Yelena Isinbayeva will hog much of the limelight in the field events as she hopes to go close to 5.00m and her fellow Russian, Olympic 800m champion Yuriy Borzakovskiy will start as favourite to win the two lap event.

Athlete of the SPAR European Cup Craig Pickering will be the European to watch in the 100m although he will face tough competition in four time European Indoor champion and fellow Briton Tyrone Edgar, but if Pickering can improve his start from Munich he could ran faster than ever before.

The women's 100m sees Bulgarian Ivet Lalova, who won a sprint double at the European Cup 1st League in Milan at the weekend and the evergreen Merlene Ottey, who, as always will prove a popular favourite of the crowd.

Sweden's Olympic champion Stefan Holm leads the High Jump field, but will have a tough battle on his hands with the Russian duo of Yaroslav Rybakov and Andrey Tereshin, who have both cleared 2.34m already this season, compared to a 2.30m clearance from the Swede.

european-athletics.org