Liliana Cá and Irina Rodrigues secured gold and silver medals at the European Throwing Cup
After Francisco Belo’s silver, on Saturday, at the weight throw, and Ruben Antunes’s bronze, on the under-23 hammer, Portugal closes the competition in fifth place in the medals table.
Overall, it is really the best result ever for Portugal, which had never won four medals and who since 2003, when Teresa Machado won on the disc, was chasing a new gold medal in women.
The national record holder Liliana Cá entered the track as a favorite, as she is the European leader of the year (and third in the world), and confirmed this status, with a better record at 62.80 meters, one centimeter only more than Irina managed to do.
Liliana Cá already has a qualifying mark for the Olympic Games, while Irina Rodrigues is clearly in the zone that qualify for ‘ranking’.
With this result, Irina Rodrigues achieves a better personal mark of 2021 and becomes the 16th of the season, and her qualification for Tokyo2020 is almost ‘right’.
Rúben Antunes threw the hammer at 71.05 meters, a new personal record for the young athlete from Sporting, who was making his debut at this level. He arrived to close the podium, very close to the silver of the Polish Dawid Pilat (71.29), world leader of the under-20s.
In the final B of the launch of the under-23 weight was Débora Quaresma, to be third, with 14.32 meters.
