| A throw of 82.87 the week before London suggested that Wodarczyk might well be in world record form, but she then suffered a finger injury before the competition, and painful stomach cramps during the event. After three rounds, the Olympic Champion was only in seventh place with 71.94, but a fourth round 77.19 took her into the lead, and her 77.90 in the fifth was enough for her to retain her title. Wang was a solid runner-up, opening with 74.31, just behind Kopron’s bronze medal throw of 74.76. Four-time medallist Zhang missed the podium by 23cm and finished in the top five for the seventh time. Wodarczyk achieved the highest release velocity of 28.26 m/s. That was quicker than all the men’s hammer throwers, but then their implement weighs 7.26kg compared with the women’s 4kg. |
