‘IF I had to pick one throw from this year, it was her third in qualifying at the World Athletics Championships,’ says Killian Barry – the coach with a front-row seat to the rise of one of Irish athletics’ most exciting young talents.

Nicola Tuthill continues to defy expectations.

The Kilbrittain hammer thrower has reached new heights this season, proving she is the real deal. She set new personal bests, won medals at the European U23 Athletics Championships, World University Games, and European Throwing Cup, and stunned with a top-11 finish at her first senior World Athletics Championships.

Her star continues to rise.

It was at the Worlds in Tokyo where her coach – not for the first time – was in awe of his athlete’s ability to perform under pressure. In the first qualifying group, Tuthill needed to produce a big effort in her third and final throw to make the final.

The 21-year-old new kid on the block delivered. Her huge effort of 70.70 metres booked her spot in the World final – another glimpse into Tuthill’s impressive mentality.

‘There was a huge amount of pressure going into her final qualifying attempt,’ Barry explained.

‘Her first throw hit the cage, her second steadied her, and she knew going into that third attempt that she’d have to throw near her best.

Nicola Tuthill on her way to 11th in the world.

‘Nicola is very calm in those moments. With all that pressure, she was able to pull a brilliant throw out of the bag and get herself into the final.

‘Was it technically her best throw of the year? No, I don't think it was. But what I loved about it was that she was able to do it when everything was on the line. She stayed composed. You could see it in her reaction after the throw – there was just that sense of “right, I did what I needed to do.”

‘It just shows that growth, not only from a performance point of view, but just dealing with those situations.’

Tuthill looks at home on the biggest of stages now. Within 13 months, she has competed at an Olympic Games and senior Worlds, and not blinked once. She’s normalising the not-so-normal, growing comfortable where the oxygen is thinner – among the world’s best.

Look at her first Olympics. Tuthill, then only 20 years old in a sport where athletes hit their peak in their late 20s or older, finished 16th out of 32. Jump forward to the recent Worlds, and she finished 11th. That’s progress on global platforms. She’s growing more familiar with all the trappings these huge athletics meets include, becoming a seasoned competitor at an early age.

‘It takes considerable time to build up those experiences over years,’ Barry notes.

‘It isn't an overnight success. It's about building up your ability to deal with pressurised situations.

‘Quite often situations that aren't really conducive to performance – that's a big challenge when it comes to major championships. The callrooms are in place, they're longer. The transport can sometimes mean that you're warming up and then getting on a bus and waiting considerable time to the start of your event. Bigger pools of athletes, so there's long times in between attempts. For an athlete without those experiences, it's quite challenging. Whereas with Nicola, we've had years now of her steadily just getting a taste for the big events.

‘She's shown now that she can go in and, when the pressure is greatest, maintain her technique and show off all the different aptitudes she has in the ring.’

Tuthill also has medals to show as tangible representations of her continued improvement. Look at her haul this year:

• She became the first Irish athlete to ever win gold at the European Throwing Cup, landing the top prize in the U23 hammer in Cyprus in March.
• Tuthill won a silver medal at the European Athletics U23 Championships in Norway in July, the first Irish athlete ever to win a field event medal at these championships.
• The Kilbrittain woman also won a silver medal at the World University Games held in Germany, her first medal on the World stage.
• When she won her fourth senior women’s hammer title at the national championships in August, she also threw a new personal best of 71.75 metres.

Barry admits he’s still amazed by his star student. He has been ever since they started working together in 2019, after he got a phone call to say there was a young girl from outside Bandon who was showing promise in the hammer.

Tuthill has risen to become the top Irish women’s hammer thrower, with only one woman – Kilkenny’s Eileen O’Keeffe – having ever thrown further. But her Irish record effort of 73.21 metres will be under threat quite soon.

The West Cork woman took her best effort from 70.32m in 2024 to 71.75m this year, and threw over 70 metres on seven different occasions, compared to just once last year. She is moving in one direction: forward, and further every time.

Nicola Tuthill and her coach Killian Barry after she won silver at the World University Games. (Photo: Shauna Clinton/Sportsfile)

‘It's been a long road to this point and quite often, on stages like the Worlds, it all looks quite glamorous, but the reality is there's a huge amount going on behind the scenes,’ Barry explains, a nod to Tuthill’s bring-it-on approach to hard work. Growing up on the family farm means she doesn’t know any other way.

‘All the work being done at home in the throwing circle, all the time spent working away in the gym, the great stuff (her strength coach) Roland Korom’s doing in that area, and all the other services behind the scenes with Sport Ireland, that has helped Nicola get to where she is now,’ her coach adds.

‘To get 11th in the world at this stage of her development shows we're certainly ahead of schedule. That's exciting because it shows we can be ambitious going into the next phase of her development, while also appreciating the fact that she's 21.

‘There's still a plan in place, and just because Nicola finished 11th it doesn't mean we're going to rush it. We're going to stay calm, stick to the process and keep building towards improving every facet of her performance.

‘If she does that, well then, the sky is the limit – and she's well capable of achieving all her aims in the years to come.’

Barry has no fears Tuthill will get carried away by her success to date. Her high standards mean she constantly wants more. Even after finishing eleventh in the world, she was disappointed with how she threw in the final in Tokyo – her best effort was 69.49m. Earlier in the summer, Tuthill told the Star Sport Podcast: ‘I’m always looking for a little bit more. All athletes will never be fully satisfied – they’re always looking for something more, and I’m the same.’

Nicola Tuthill smiling after defending her Irish senior title with a record throw.(Photo: Sam Barnes/Sportsfile)

Finding that ‘something more’ is an objective Tuthill and Killian Barry share. The hammer is a very technical sport, and one of her biggest strengths is her technique, and her consistency with that. And she’s learning and improving all the time.

‘There's so much that goes into performance: the technical movement, your ability to produce force, your ability for speed, power, mobility, all of these different things, to name just a few. You just have to steadily develop them as time goes,’ Barry says.

‘If you overfocus on one area, well, then you're going to lose focus on others. It's that juggling act that you need to navigate and make sure that the athletes improve across the board.

‘With Nicola, she's found that balance and she's able to improve everything across her skills.’

Quite soon, it’s back into the heavy slog of winter training as the focus switches to 2026. It will be lighter in terms of championships, but the target will remain the same: the search for more distance continues.