The Athletics competition at the Belgrade Summer Universiade will be a very interesting competition to follow. With the earlier confirmed presence of Olympic Triple Jump Champion Nélson Évora (POR), European High Jump Champion Ariane Friedrich (GER), former Hammer Throw World Champion Betty Heidler (GER) and Olympic Silver Medallist Hannah Mariën (BEL), the Slovak Delegation announced that the current Number One in Women’s Hammer Throwing Martina Hrašnová will be participating at the 2009 Summer Universiade.
As a junior she finished twelfth at the 1999 World Youth Championships, fifth at the 2000 World Junior Championships, and won the silver medals at the 2001 European Junior Championships and the 2002 World Junior Championships. She finished eighth at the 2008 Olympic Games. She also competed at the 2001 World Championships, the 2002 European Championships, the 2006 European Championships and the 2007 World Championships without reaching the final. She was also was 2nd at the prestigious 2008 World Athletic Finals (previously known as IAAF Grand Prix). Just three women in the world have reached a better result in the hammer throw discipline as the Slovak record of Martina Hrašnová is 76,90 m
She is an athlete with a big potential for improvement of her own record. As far as 2009 is concerned, she is now in 1st place on the World Tables, due to her Slovak record of 76,90 m, thrown in Trnava on May 16th, 2009.
No doubt the rivalry between high calibre hammer throwers Heidler and Hrašnová will be quite interesting to watch.
Martina Hrasnova