BY KIERAN McCARTHY
THE secret is out: rising star Nicola Tuthill is one to watch.
Here in West Cork and in Irish athletics circles, we know all about this talented Kilbrittain woman, and the wider audience got a glimpse of just how good Tuthill is and how good she can be.
In her first senior European Athletics Championships the 20-year-old finished a brilliant ninth on Monday night with her best throw of 69.09m, having qualified for the final on Sunday with her best effort of 69.85m.
Twice she came close to beating the 70-metre mark, having set her personal best of 70.32m late last month.
‘I was ranked a lot lower than this coming in so I was delighted to make the final,’ Tuthill beamed.
‘I’m really happy to come ninth and was really close to coming eighth which would have given me another three throws. I still wasn’t massively far off my PB, I would have loved to get close to that 70 again but for my first senior international I can’t ask for much more.’
Her second throw in the European final was her best, 69.09, and it sandwiched efforts of 66.85 and 66.29 – and Tuthill feels she was too tense in her first and last throws, learnings to take forward.
‘I wanted to get one out of the cage to settle the nerves, I would have liked to go a bit further. Similar to Sunday, I was a bit tense. If I was a bit more relaxed it would have run a little,’ she said.
‘The second one went out that bit further. I was really pushing for this one, to get it further. In a championship like this you have to do that, I pushed that bit too much and tensed up again and it didn’t go as far.’
The Bandon AC star is enjoying another season of progression, taking her 2023 PB from 67.85m to 70.32 this year, and it’s little wonder that Tuthill is now being discussed as a possible late bolter for a spot at this summer’s Olympic Games in Paris. The UCD student is keeping her feet on the ground.
‘I’d absolutely love to but it's just a case of wait and see, keep throwing as far as I can and get into what competitions I can. I’m still only 20 years old. Of course that (the Olympics) is everyone's end goal but I'll just have to keep working hard and keep training and see what I can do,’ the former Coláiste na Toirbhirte student said, as she landed back home this week following her heroics in Rome. The plan is to return to training, enter a few more competitions this month, including the Irish senior nationals at the end of June, and see where that leaves her at the Olympic qualification cut-off point.
