Route 66, as Nicola goes to extra lengths this year

NICOLA Tuthill has already thrown three personal bests this year – and she’s not finished yet.

The Kilbrittain teenager (19) has moved to second on the all-time Irish women’s hammer throw list and broken the U23 national record in recent months, but isn't surprised by her jump in performance levels this year.

The Bandon AC star had seen enough indicators in training to suggest she was ready to throw farther than ever before, and she has.

She started the year with a PB of 61.87, thrown at the World Athletics U20 Championships in Colombia last summer, as she finished eighth. Nicola quickly jumped up to 64.45m at the Dunboyne Throws Festival in February. Next, at the Irish Universities T&F Championships in Dublin her PB was improved by over one metre, to 65.74m; this was also a new national U23 record. Not long after, Nicola set another PB, throwing a monstrous 66.57m on UCD’s track.

‘So far everything has been going really well, I have had a few PBs and am up to 66 metres now – that throw broke the national U23 record as well. It’s nice to have that now,’ says Nicola, back home in West Cork for the summer after her first year in college, studying Biological, Biomedical and Biomolecular Sciences in UCD. She has shone under the bright lights of the capital, enjoying the balance between college and the hammer throw, as she winds up for a busy summer. The big one is the European Athletics U23 Championships in Finland in July (13th to 16th).

‘They will be the main one,’ she confirms.

‘This is my first year of U23. It would be great to get to a final in that, and it will be the aim. I have the European U23s again in 2025, so it will be good to get out there and experience it.’

Still a teen, Nicola has already packed a lot into her hammer career, including winning the national senior title when she was just 16 years old. Time is on her side though; the current Olympic women’s hammer throw champion is Poland’s Anita Włodarczyk; she’s 37 years old.

‘That’s the good thing about the hammer, it’s not necessarily a young person’s sport, you have the time to develop, gain experience and then push on. Getting that experience in your younger years is important,’ Nicola says, and the European U23s will be an important stage of her development. It’s all about putting the building blocks in place. Nicola also has the U23 and senior nationals as her two main domestic events, so her summer schedule is stacked.

‘It’s very promising that we are seeing improvement. With another block of training in the summer, hopefully I can push on again a small bit before the summer is out,’ Nicola explains, as she bounces back in style from the injury – dislocated and fractured elbow – that sidelined her for a large chunk of 2022.

‘I put in a lot of gym work last year when I was injured and worked on a lot of drills and my technique, and it’s all coming together now. I am still developing as an athlete,’ Nicola says, as she targets even more improvement in the months ahead.

Eileen O’Keeffe’s Irish record of 73:21 is still a considerable distance away, but the Bandon AC athlete is inching towards it, and has time on her side.