Hammer time! Nicola Tuthill breaks Irish record to win senior women’s gold

NICOLA Tuthill won her first senior national title in style – by setting a new personal best in the women’s hammer, smashing the Irish U18 women’s hammer record and also recording the second longest throw in the world by an U18 this year.

The Bandon AC teenager (16) won gold at the recent Irish Life Health National Athletics Senior and U23 Championships in Morton Stadium after she threw 60.04m to win the women’s hammer.

Not only was it a new personal best and a new Irish U18 women’s hammer record, but the West Cork teenager also became only the sixth Irish woman to ever throw over 60 metres. Her previous PB was 58.24.

‘I wasn’t expecting a 60-metre throw so I’m very happy,’ a delighted Tuthill said, who revealed that she kept training at home in a field on the family farm during lockdown.

‘I’m very lucky that I live out in the countryside so most of my training was the same and my coaches along with Bandon AC, who I have been with since I was ten years old, and my family were all so supportive.’

This triumph marks Tuthill out as one to watch in the years to come and potentially a new star in the women’s hammer.