The best hammer thrower in history Wlodarczyk again at P-T-S.

The prominent guest of the 58th edition of the P-T-S meeting, which will take place for the first time in Banska Bystrica on July 20 and will have the silver status of the World Athletics Continental Tour series, will be the three-time Olympic champion in the hammer throw (2012, 2016, 2021) Anita Wlodarczyk. The 37-year-old polish athlete is the world record holder with a performance of 82.98 m, and also the first woman in the history of athletics to break down 80-meter mark (August 1, 2015 in Cetniew). The first world record which she threw was in 2009 in the final of the WC in Berlin (77.96 m), our Martina Hrašnová finished third and they stood together on the podium.

The four-time world champion (2009, 2013, 2015, 2017) and four-time European champion (2012, 2014, 2016, 2018) returns to the P-T-S meeting after a two-year break. She competed at this meeting for the first time in the renewed year on June 4, 2016, in Šamorín when she set the current meeting record of 77.70 m. She returned a year later and won again – with a performance of 75.45 m. The last time Anita competed at P-T-S was in 2021, when she reached 72.95 m, but lost to the Venezuelan Rodríguez (73.34). This year, Wlodarczyková has competed five times so far, four times she was able to surpass the mark of 70. Her longest throw was on June 18 in Poznan – 71.73 m.

Another powerhouse from Rosemont, Minnesota is coming to Stiavnicky. Payton Otterdahl will try to erase the P-T-S record in the shot put, which has belonged to the legendary German Udo Beyer since 1978 with a performance of 21.79 m. Otterdahl’s this year’s open-air mannequin is 20 cm higher (21.99). So far this year, Payton has completed in six competitions, while in only five he exceeded 21 m and achieved performances from 21.50 to 21.99 m. The American competed at the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo, finishing tenth in the final (20.32 m). He is also a two-time USA (NCAA) indoor university champion from 2019, winning both the weighted throw, and the shot put.

The newcomer of last year’s 400m season, the winner of the African Championship and the Commonwealth Games Muzal Samokung, will run the half distance – 200 m at the P-T-S. He will be one of the opponents of Slovak record holder Ján Volko. The Zambian’s personal record on this track is 20.48 seconds. Muzal is the leader of this year’s 400 m world charts with a time of 43.91. Samokunga is improving year by year, he was fifth in the year 2021 at the MSJ, he ran 400 m in 45.89, last year he had won a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games with a time of 44.66, and in this year he improved to 43.91 at the meeting in Gaborone, Botswana. He recently won 400m race (45.05) in the Zlata tretra in Ostrava.