Nicola Tuthill: following in famous throwing steps from inside the hammer cage

A few years back when Nicola Tuthill began taking her hammer throwing a little more seriously the training situation was proving somewhat problematic. The nearest hammer throwing cage, an obvious and large requirement, was located on the other side of Bandon town in Co Cork, and for Tuthill, at the time also studying for her Junior Cert, one session could sometimes take up half the day.

With that her father Norman had a bright idea: build a hammer cage right here, on the family dairy farm, also saving her mother Collette the commute given she always accompanied Nicola to training.

“And if I got the hammer stuck in the net we’d have to find a ladder to get it down,” says Tuthill. “All while my sisters were in the car doing their homework because mum goes to every training session with me. So it just made more sense to build one at home, and mum can just run in and out during my training sessions.”

That home-training facility soon paid dividends, Tuthill winning a first Irish senior hammer title in 2020 with a best of 60.04m, aged just 16, her progression impressively steady ever since. Last month, at her first Irish senior international, she finished second in the European team championships in Chorzow in Poland, throwing a new lifetime best of 67.85m.

‘I can become one of the best batters in the world’ - Tector and Ireland gear up for Stateside T20 World Cup

---

Donegal conceding so many goals is not typical of a side managed by Jim McGuinness

---

The Offload: No contact with Sam Prendergast about potential loan move, says Connacht’s Pete Wilkins

---

That is now second on the Irish senior all-time list behind national record holder Eileen O’Keeffe, who threw 73.21m in Santry back in 2007, the same year she finished a brilliant sixth at the World Championships in Osaka, Japan. O’Keeffe, also a Beijing Olympian in 2008, won nine consecutive Irish hammer titles in all, before retiring due to a knee injury in 2011 aged 29.

Now Tuthill looks poised to follow in those throwing steps, and although they have never actually met, there are other similarities with O’Keeffe. The Kilkenny nurse, who famously first trained herself in the event after her brother picked up an athletics DVD in the local pound shop, also built her own hammer cage at home.

Still only 19, Tuthill’s immediate target is the European under-23 championships in Espoo, Finland, next weekend, one of 32 Irish athletes selected, with a final place certainly on her mind. She signed off by winning the Irish under-23 title in Tullamore, Co Offaly, last weekend, setting a championship record 64.89m.

It may not be the most popular track and field discipline but it comes with a long tradition, especially in this country. The event is traced back to the Tailteann Games, around 1600BC, where legend has it Cú Chulainn himself would grip a chariot wheel by its axle, whirl it around his head, before throwing it a great distance.

John Flanagan, a Limerick-born thrower who won three Olympic hammer titles for the US, and Dr Pat O’Callaghan, the two-time Olympic champion in 1928 and 1932, later following in those throwing footsteps.

The specifics of the modern event – the metal ball 7.26kg for men, 4kg for women, attached to a grip by a steel wire no longer than 1.22m and thrown from a circle 2.135m in diameter – requires considerable strength and technical ability, and it’s not without some perils either.

Last year, at the European Throwing Cup in Leiria, Portugal, Tuthill was in that circle for her third throw. Not long after she was being stretchered out of the arena with a fractured elbow and dislocated shoulder.

“I was just turning in the circle and got my leg caught in the other one, mid-throw, just put my hand down, and it popped out then. That meant no throwing at all for three months, although I was doing some one-handed throws, with lighter hammers, kept working on the leg strength too.”

That paid some dividends, Tuthill later in the season making the final at the World under-20 championships in Cali, Colombia, finishing in eighth place:.“I was out for a three full months, couldn’t throw at all, so just to make the final there, throw a best too, that added a sweetener to the end of the season.”

Earlier this season she returned to the European Throwing Cup, and in the same arena in Leiria, came away with a silver medal in the under-23 competition, throwing a then best distance of 64.44m, narrowly beaten by the final round effort of 65.51m by Ukraine’s former European under-18 and under-20 champion Valeriya Ivanenko-Kyrylina.

Tuthill has just completed her first year in UCD, where she is studying biological, biomedical and biomolecular science, benefiting from an Ad Astra scholarship which also affords her the chance to mix with other elite student athletes.

That has also brought her closer to her throwing coach, Killian Barry, who is based in Dublin, while she also continues to work off the strength and conditioning programme designed by her gym coach in Bandon Roland Korom.

She is always open to some advice, too from Kevin Warner, her neighbour in Bandon, who first started her off properly in throwing after she first discovered the hammer at an athletics summer camp hosted by Bandon AC.

“I started out in all events, around age nine, did a lot of running. Then I tried it out at a summer camp, and later I was at Kevin’s daughter’s communion, was probably just joking around, the day before the county championships, that I was going to do the hammer, and he said he’d coach me.

“My throwing coach now, Killian, is from Dublin, he’s 10 minutes away from UCD, so he’s able to come over and train with me during the day. And I settled in UCD quite quickly, and living with other athletes, from different sports, that helped a bit as well, all with the similar mindsets, similar training.”

That move already paid dividends for UCD, with Tuthill winning the Irish Universities track and field title, staged at a wet track at the DSD complex in the foothills of the Dublin mountains, with a then best throw of 65.74m

There is little doubt the 70m barrier is fast coming within her reach, proper world-class territory which would also bring her close to the realm of Olympic qualification, although she knows also that progression is not always linear.

“The season has been going really well so far, broken a few personal bests now, have had a few good performances. I have pushed on quite a bit this year, so it’s sometime hard to tell, when you make a big jump like that, you might stick at that distance for a little while, before you make that jump again. But hopefully with another solid block of winter training I’ll be able to push it out over 70m.

“It’s just about building more strength, getting better speed and technique, there is always improvement to be made there. To get to Paris I’ll need to be throwing out around 73m, a fair bit, but 2028 might be a more realistic goal.”

No shortage of famous throwing steps to inspire her there.