UK Throw Events - State of play

[Ursus]

And you reckon men’s 400m running is in a state with our top ranked 66th in the world and 4 in the top 100……

Depressing stat of the day. The UK leads in the spear are world ranked 123 (men) and 137 (women).

Has there ever been an event in a worse state? Not just throws.

[philipo]

And you reckon men’s 400m running is in a state with our top ranked 66th in the world and 4 in the top 100……

Depressing stat of the day. The UK leads in the spear are world ranked 123 (men) and 137 (women).

Has there ever been an event in a worse state? Not just throws.

Mystery clearly suggests, but obliquely, that we give up and concentrate on a few track events, preferably our middle distance events. Is he secretly a selector who can't admit to us that he is, and doesn't give a tuppeny toss for field events especially the the throws😀

[MysteryBrick]

I'm not saying we give them up, I'm saying that as a nation we have a heritage in the middle distance which explains our relative strength and depth there, and expecting that in all events is unrealistic.

[philipo]

My assessment is that Hammer is generally in pretty good health at the moment, Discus looks a lot better with Okoye around, Shot is fairly meh apart from Lincoln (who I have a lot of respect for) and Javelin is a total trashfire.

Oh dear, I forgot we have the Okoye guy, who probably considers we should be grateful for a couple of decent throws per summer. Talk about wasted talent ; the perfect example.

[MysteryBrick]

Okoyo did indeed totally balls up in Tokyo, but he remains GB's best ever discus thrower no matter what you think of him, and his return means the event is stronger nationally.

[philipo]

And you reckon men’s 400m running is in a state with our top ranked 66th in the world and 4 in the top 100……

Depressing stat of the day. The UK leads in the spear are world ranked 123 (men) and 137 (women).

Has there ever been an event in a worse state? Not just throws.

in rare moments of optimism i think maybe one of our young sub 46 guys will suddenly blossom and a rebirth will begin; give them those special shoes it may assist.

[trickstat]

And you reckon men’s 400m running is in a state with our top ranked 66th in the world and 4 in the top 100……

Depressing stat of the day. The UK leads in the spear are world ranked 123 (men) and 137 (women).

Has there ever been an event in a worse state? Not just throws.

Across both men and women at the same time, quite possibly not. For example, I know that our men's HJ was very poor for most of the 1960s and 70s but the women's was more respectable, if not actually super strong.

[Occasional Hope]

Just noticed an interesting result from late September - Jamie Bushnell threw a massive pb in the SP of 21.39 to go ahead of Scott Lincoln in the UK rankings. Is that a reliable measurement? Never heard of him before. Surely a mistake???

He's no youngster (34!) but looking at his Po10 only started throwing seriously this year.

[jjimbojames]

No chance. He threw the jav just a bit further, according to his Po10

[Occasional Hope]

Ah, I wonder if they put the wrong event on the listings? They need to sort it out pronto. (Thought it didn't seem right )

[philipo]

Poor little UKA and the useless incompetents who are content to wait for the next middle distance athletes to shine and dish out the hype.. The top people do not, i venture to suggest, have sleepless nights about the crap coaching here of highly technical events; sad that Mo, Greg and the top hep woman could not last forever.
I suppose with the highly convenient chat about heritage of mid distance greats of the past, we can hope for no better throwing talent in the near future and also applies to the jumps to a slightly less extent.
When i read from one expert here that the reappearance of Okoye was grounds for opining that things were looking up in the mens Discus, one has to laugh.
Lets face an uncomfortable reality; since when did any one in the top levels of British athletics management give a convincing argument that they beleive that without top coaches across the board our sports standing may well recede into the far distance; certainly as far as the throws and jumps are concerned.

[marra]

Given how poor our discus throwing has been, it would have been tough for Okoye's reappearance to NOT be looking up for that event. For context, even with his under performance at Tokyo, he's essentially the only person we have throwing over 64m, let alone anything close to 67m or higher.

So, whilst we shouldn't be putting up the bunting, it's still an improvement from where we were. That just says more about how terrible we are elsewhere.

Whilst I'm not going to sit here and defend our coaching/administrating setup (I do not know enough about the inner workings of either to either support/criticise accurately), I do think that we have to acknowledge that MysteryBrick is right to an extent. We've always been a nation of sprinters and middle distance runners, with the occassional star in other areas.

The bare facts are that we've won 211 Olympic medals in athletics. Only 37 of those have come in the field. For further context we've won 27 medals in the two events of 800m/1500m alone.

We can still make a reasonable argument that we should be doing better than we are in field events, given we are one of the more well funded nations. I don't disagree with that. But we should set reasonable expectations as to what that will entail.

[carterhatch]

Time for me to make an early, bold (and potentially foolish) prediction for the season.... We'll see at least 2 GB women throw the hammer beyond 70m.

Head, Mayho and/or Tara Simpson-Sullivan are the leading candidates.

MysteryBrick commented
Today, 12:56
I'm an optimist, but I wouldn't even call that a bold prediction! Katie Head at 69.72m in both comps so far this year and Jess Mayho opening with 68.11m after 69.44m last year - while Tara Simpson-Sullivan broke the British 9.08kg Weight Throw record by over half a metre. Also, don't sleep on Amy Phillips (formerly Herrington) who barely competed outdoors last year but still threw 66.06m and has been in good form indoors this year.


The emergence of a group of female hammer throwers is heartening, and as I mentioned on another thread, testament to Sophie Hitchon's inspiration that challenged the stereo-type of what makes a competitive thrower. As I also said I hope that she has remained in an around athletics...It is going to be an interesting watch to see who can break the 70m barrier ...

Meanwhile, cant help but admire Sophie Mckinna's passion, a great PB and some more to come one hopes.

It might just become mandatory to call your daughter Sophie if you want her to become a leading British thrower...

[MysteryBrick]

Call me Nostradamus: 68.72m opener for Amy Phillips this weekend.

[trevorp]

Meanwhile, cant help but admire Sophie Mckinna's passion, a great PB and some more to come one hopes.

Sophie was great, but I was also (strangely? foolishly?) encouraged by the competition overall. Nothing earth-shattering, of course, but do I detect some green shoots of improvement?

[MysteryBrick]

I'm enjoying Shaunna Thompson's reemergence as a shot putter - 15.00m PB for 5th, and that's not a bad distance!

[Occasional Hope]

It was nice to see big fields in all the field events.

[RunUnlimited]

Having a base of relatively young shot putters behind McKinna (who herself is just entering her prime at 27/28), like Nicol (25/26), Strickler (25/26) and Oladipo (23/24) throwing regularly over 17 meters is more likely than not to see at least one of them pushing into the 18 meter bracket, which will further push McKinna to strive to stay on top and go further herself.
Plus with the likes of Serena Vincent, just 21 and already throwing over 16 meters, coming through, then the future is looking pretty good for women's shot put.

[Ursus]

It’s been very pleasing to watch both McKinna and Lincoln’s progress over the years. Not been a smooth ride for either but both right at their best in what should be their peak years. Hopefully this year will see more over 21 from Lincoln and some 19s from McKinna (NR is 19.36).

Pleasing, if not earth shattering, early season results on the runway from Walton and Harris. Walton isn’t the biggest but seems to have a decent technique, hopefully she can add to her 55. Harris was what we’ve seen all too often - 75.71 PB at age 20 in 2017 then stalled improvement. Still, being within half a metre or so of his PB in February ought to be a portent of better things to come. We can but hope.

Will this season see more of the lesser spotted Whiteaker? Will Harry Hughes be fit?

[carterhatch]

i never thought I would hear myself say this but ... how exciting is British female hammer right now and its not even mid May!

The overnight news that a throw by Tara Simpson-Sullivan places her 5th in the UK all time list makes it 4 ladies currently competing in that select list [a variation on a MysteryBrick metric that suggets an event is in a healthy place]

i have said before, but happy to repeat, that I put this emergence entriely down to the inspiration of Sophie Hitchon [if she had thrown the discus or javelin instead, with similar career results, we would have seen a surge in those implements, of that I have no doubt] BUT...

While I am trying to teach myself to be 'half full', it has to be noted that none of these ladies have achieved the standard for Europeans, let alone Worlds [yet].

However, I urge broadcasters to have a camera focused on this event at the nationals, as if they all turn up with their 'A-game' it is going to be a very competitive afternoon, worthy of more than just brief edited hightlights...

[RunUnlimited]

Continuing on with the theme of women's hammer throwing in the UK....

Looking at the UK all time top 20, 10 of those performances have happened in the last 2 years alone, with 4 of the top 5 now over 69m (and one of them over 70m). And on top of that is the ages of the ladies now stacking up in the hammer: 70m Anne Purchase turns 23 in September, Tara Simpson-Sullivan is just 21(!), Katie Head is 23 in December, Amy Phillips is 24 in a fortnight's time, Jessica Mayho is the "veteran" at 28, and Charlotte D. Payne is only 20 and has already breached 66 meters. (There is also Amber Simpson who turned 23 in January and has also set a 65m PB in the last few days.)

That's 6 women there under the age of 25 who all improving and are all pushing each other to further and better distances.

Of course this must be tempered by the fact that USA's Brooke Andersen went to number 4 on the world all time list last week with her 79.02m and that Sophie Hitchon still remains the only British entrant in the world all time top 100 performers (74.54m, 45th).... but having such a clutch of youthful hammer throwers already challenging the 70m barrier, the future is looking likely that at least one of them will soon be joining Hitchon on that esteemed ranking list.

[CAML]

The race to beat Hitchon's BR is on. What a story it would be if the youngest of the potential candidates Charlotte Payne, was to break it. She is profoundly deaf, but chooses not to participate in deaf sport, she is able to compete in the deaf classification if she wishes. She was diagnosed at 3 with hearing loss and her parents told she would be unable to balance properly. Fast forward to 2021, she's second on the Junior all time list and team captain at the Euro U/20's, giving speeches to the GB team. What a remarkable young lady.

[carterhatch]

Thank you for that remarkable insight, CAML ... I hope her trajectory continues upwards & onwards. It certainly adds another positive dimension to an event that grows in interest and must warrant some further media attention.