‘I was even doing one-handed throws at one point!'

HARD work pays off. Just ask Nicola Tuthill. 

In March the rising West Cork athletics star dislocated and fractured her elbow while representing Ireland at the European Throwing Cup in Portugal.

It threw her year into disarray – but the Kilbrittain teenager (18) didn’t give up.

One of the Bandon AC star’s big targets this year was to earn her spot on the Irish team heading to the World Athletics U20 Championships in Cali, Columbia, which start next Monday, August 1st. Mission accomplished. Tuthill was picked to represent Ireland in the women’s hammer and flew out with the Irish team to Colombia on Wednesday. Even though she missed three months of training, she never threw in the towel and now gets her reward: the chance to perform on the world stage.

‘I’m not at the level I could have been at given I have missed three months of throwing but I never stopped training. I adapted to working legs in the gym and drills for throwing. I was even doing one-handed throws at one point!’ Tuthill explains.

‘I am really looking forward to going out to Colombia and it's something I never gave up on even when the odds were stacked against me. I have my coaches, family and physio Mary to thank for that.’

Tuthill started back throwing light hammers just over six weeks ago, moving up gradually from the 2.5kg hammer to the 4kg. At the national juniors on July 17th, her first competition back, she won gold. At the recent AAI Games she threw 59.99m, as she inches towards her top form.

‘It was great to win the national juniors, I was absolutely delighted that all the hard work paid off and I got selected for World U20s,’ explained Tuthill who shot to stardom in 2020 when, as a 16-year-old, was crowned Irish women’s senior hammer champion. She is also a former Celtic Ross Hotel West Cork Youth Sports Star of the Year, and a name we will hear and read a lot about.