NICOLA Tuthill is confident that her gold medal success at the European Throwing Cup is a sign of things to come.
The Kilbrittain trailblazer powered her way to the top of the podium in the U23 women’s hammer in Nicosia to become Ireland’s first-ever gold medallist in this competition – and, encouragingly, she brought home the top prize while yet to hit top gear this year.
Designing her training programme to peak this summer, Tuthill’s best throw of 69.74m – a European U23 leading mark – hints the best is yet to come in the months ahead.
‘In winter training you are doing such a volume that it can be difficult to know where you are at, so to go out this early in the season – and considering I won’t be at peak until the summertime – and perform like that, it’s encouraging,’ Tuthill told The Southern Star.
‘I deloaded to throw well at the European Throwing Cup but it’s straight back into a block of training. When I’m even more fresh I’ll be able to creep back up towards the 70 metres.’
Nicola Tuthill won gold at the European Throwing Cup in Cyprus.
Tuthill will take a lot of positives from her performance in Cyprus. She was impressively consistent: all of her six throws were over 67 metres. Her best effort was just shy of the 70-metre mark, so not too far away from her personal best of 70.32m.
‘The consistency was there, which is good. My technique wasn’t that perfect, so it’s nice to have a consistent performance this early in the season. The plan is to build on that now,’ she said. ‘These types of medals don’t come along very often and sometimes not at all, so to be able to win gold and stand on top of the podium is a really special moment that I will never forget. Having won the two silvers previously (at the European Throwing Cup in 2023 and ’24) I really wanted to get that gold.
‘It’s important too for Irish athletics because it came just after the European Indoors and the success we had there, and then to get such strong performances from our field event athletes at the European Throwing Cup. We’ve seen the talent rise so much in field events.’
With a gold medal added to her growing collection, it’s a boost at the right time as the Bandon Athletic Club star’s diary is packed. There’s the European Athletics Team Championships, the World University Games, possibly the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo if everything goes as planned, as well as the European Athletics U23 Championships in July when the reigning Irish women’s hammer champion will be a serious medal contender.
‘This will be my last Euro U23s but it’s such a strong field. I won silver two years ago at the European Throwing Cup with 64 metres, and silver this year was 69.06, so it's constantly getting better. Everyone who was in Cyprus will have the same goals and will be training hard to get over 70 consistently. It’s about going back, working hard and seeing what I can do,’ adds Tuthill who is determined to continue her rapid rise that saw her shoot to national prominence as a Paris Olympian in 2024.
‘I came back from Paris really, really motivated,’ she says.
‘I wanted to go straight back into competition and to keep training, but I picked up a bit of a niggle so I ended up having to take a break to make sure we got that sorted. Now that is all okay, I have such motivation to do better.
‘If you experience something like that once, you want to experience it again. And you want to constantly improve too.’
Winning Ireland’s first-ever gold medal at the European Throwing Cup is a step in the right direction for the UCD student who is top of her class in the women’s hammer.
