Hammer thrower looking to nail World Champs

Hammer thrower looking to nail World Champs

She may not be able to pronounce the name but hammer throwing Lincoln University elite sports scholar Lauren Bruce is booked in for the World Under-20 Athletic Championships champs in Bydgoszcz, Poland, in July.

The 19-year-old national junior champ bettered the international qualifying distance at the nationals and recent Australian champs. However, she has just been told she has met the tougher New Zealand standards and will be wearing the silver fern for the month long trip, which starts at the beginning of July.

There will be a warm – up with a meet in Germany and the trip culminates with the championships “somewhere in Poland”.

“A couple of years ago I set my sights on making the 2016 World Juniors Team so it was exciting to find I had been selected. I have been told by a number of people what a great experience it is, and many of the top New Zealand throwers that have made this team have gone on to make Commonwealth and Olympic teams later on, “ Lauren says.

“It is a privilege to be able to have the opportunity to represent New Zealand on the world stage and I am looking forward to the experience and the challenges it will bring.”

But while she may have to work on her Polish she has been putting in the hours in the throwing circle. In-between studying for a Bachelor of Science degree majoring in food science she hits the gym three times a week and is throwing the hammer for four to five days.

The trim green field which she practises in, which looks like it has been mauled by a militia of moles, can testify to that, and a garden fork is essential equipment for training as well as hammers.

But the hard work is paying dividends as she is throwing beyond 58m and is ranked second in the national senior class.

Lauren heads home to Timaru every weekend to train with her coach, who formerly mentored shotput champion Tom Walsh, and some of her old athletic team who she has been with since she was seven, originally doing high jump and hurdles.

She only took up the hammer five years ago. One of her other passions is gymnastics – a stress fracture stopped her being competitive and pushed her towards the hammer – however she still coaches a group of youngsters.

“Obviously in gymnastics you require good balance, coordination and core strength and the same goes for throwing so it provided me with a good foundation to shift in to hammer.

“I was never going to get much further with gymnastics and I think I timed the change well with hammer throwing becoming a bigger sport in New Zealand over the last few years. With throwing you aren't reaching your full potential until your late twenties so there is still plenty of time to throw far.”

She is a versatile thrower and hopes to also throw discus in Poland if the opportunity arises, and her shotputting has led to some name-dropping opportunities, as she competed with New Zealand great Val Adams in her comeback meets after surgery.

While Rio may be a bit early she has 2020 vision for the next Olympics in Tokyo which is an altogether easier name to pronounce, but if she brings home gold in Poland, Bydgoszcz might be a name she will long remember, though spelling it may be a different story.

ENDS

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