Čeh wins discus at home meet; Čurin Prapotnik shines in sprints

Kristjan Čeh, captain of the Slovenian athletics team, secured a victory in the discus throw at the Telekom Slovenije international league meet in Ptuj. He achieved a distance of 65.26 meters with his sole valid throw of the competition. Čeh, who is preparing to defend his European title in Birmingham, faced competition from Austria's Lukas Weisshaidinger, a silver medalist at the previous European Championships. Weisshaidinger's best throw was 59.38 meters.

Čeh acknowledged that his performance was not optimal, stating, "Today I did worse, we have been working on improving my technique lately. I didn't capitalize on that today, even though I had serious competition. I fouled my first throw, sent the second into the net, and the third and fifth landed outside the measurement sector. Fortunately, I had a chance for a fourth throw, which I took safely. It was slow and I still have room for improvement this season."

Anej Čurin Prapotnik delivered a strong performance, winning the 100 meters with a time of 10.18 seconds. This was just five hundredths of a second shy of the Slovenian record set by Matic Osovnikar in 2007. Čurin Prapotnik's time was his fastest ever and missed the European Championship qualifying standard of 10.15 seconds by three hundredths. He also set a personal best in the 200 meters, finishing in 20.96 seconds, his first time running under 21 seconds.

“

Today I did worse, we have been working on improving my technique lately. I didn't capitalize on that today, even though I had serious competition. I fouled my first throw, sent the second into the net, and the third and fifth landed outside the measurement sector. Fortunately, I had a chance for a fourth throw, which I took safely. It was slow and I still have room for improvement this season.

"It was raining and the wind was variable, but I finally ran such a good time in the 100 meters. The main goal is the standard for the European Championships and to get under 10.10. In the 200 meters too, I haven't remembered when I last ran this distance, I was very good this time. Although I didn't win, it wasn't important for me, I ran very fast," Čurin Prapotnik commented.

Other notable performances included Zala Istenič, who became only the fifth Slovenian woman to run the 200 meters under 23 seconds with a time of 22.97. Lina Hribar also set personal bests in both the 100 and 200 meters. Filip Jakob Demšar opened his 110-meter hurdles season with a time of 13.79 seconds in the final, narrowly missing the European Championship qualifying mark of 13.40 seconds.

“

It was raining and the wind was variable, but I finally ran such a good time in the 100 meters. The main goal is the standard for the European Championships and to get under 10.10. In the 200 meters too, I haven't remembered when I last ran this distance, I was very good this time. Although I didn't win, it wasn't important for me, I ran very fast.