Croatia’s best female athlete Sandra Perković failed to win the Diamond League title for the seventh consecutive year, and instead finished in third place in the final in Brussels.
Cuban discus thrower Yaime Perez finished in first with a 65.00-meter throw, and in second place was Brazil's Andressa de Morais who threw 64.85 meters. Perković threw 64,31 meters for third, reports Gol.hr on September 1, 2018.
Perković achieved her best throw in Brussels already in the first series and held first place until the last series, although in the second series Perez threw only eight centimeters from Perković's best.
But in the final sixth series, De Morais first took the lead by throwing 64.85 meters, though Perez and Perković still had a chance to win. Perez, however, took advantage of her last chance, throwing 65.00 meters to finish at the top, while the current Olympic gold winner and world champion Sandra Perković threw 62.85 meters in the last series and thus remained in third place.
“It was not as we all expected and wished. The season was quite long, this was just one competition, I gave all of myself, I tried, I struggled to the last throw, but simply the body did not give as much as the head wanted. The European Championship in Berlin left a trace, and it’s been a long season,” Perković said after the final of the Diamond League in Brussels.
“Indeed, this Diamond League system is unfair, but those are the rules, that is the sport. After every one of my defeats I always come back better, I think I used myself and everything around me only for victory, long throws, and great results, but I am also a man of blood and flesh, and I go up and down every day and only my team and I know how it has been for the past seven days. It is most important to me that I have managed to come to Brussels to the Diamond League. However healthy I am, I am not stable, I tried to fight for that seventh trophy, which unfortunately slipped out of my hands. But I have to say that I have not lost today by some great distance. I lost myself today because 65 meters was enough to win the trophy. I had this in my hands today, but I just could not finish it,” added the Croatian athlete.
“This year is not over yet, I am waiting for the Continental Cup and the Hanžeković Memorial and to throw in front of a home crowd. You cannot fly high unless you fall, because only then can you get the momentum to go where you’re supposed to be. This is a bit of a shock and a cold shower, and again a great motivation for what's coming,” Perković concluded for HRT.
This was the first defeat for Perković after 13 months and 15 consecutive victories. Sandra won in all four previous rallies of the Diamond League this year - in Doha, Rome, Paris and London - but she failed to confirm her dominance at the final in Brussels.
By the end of the season, Perković expects another performance at the Hanžeković Memorial in Zagreb on September 4th and at the Ostrava Cup on September 8th.
