Daunted yet undeterred – Nicola Tuthill is one big throw from becoming an Olympian

If it doesn’t happen, the 20-year-old Bandon athlete will have lost little. Her focus this year was always on the European Championships in Rome, where she surprised many by making the final and finishing ninth.

The Paris Olympics? They were never really in her plans, and yet here they are, within reach. One big throw at tomorrow’s national championships in Santry and she’s there. If Tuthill can whip around that circle and release that 4kg metal ball at just the right angle, with just the right speed, she’ll become an Olympian.

What are the keys to the perfect throw? “Your entry into the throw has to be right, if it’s wrong you’re setting yourself up wrong from the start,” she says. “Then if you can keep yourself composed, not lean or pull the hammer, and just let the ball run.”

Track athletes may be taking the Irish spotlight right now, but quietly, consistently, Tuthill has enjoyed a remarkable year – twice smashing the Irish U-23 record and surpassing the 70-metre barrier for the first time in April.

All of which has catapulted her to the brink of Olympic qualification. She is 31st on the Road to Paris rankings, with the top 32 qualifying when the deadline closes tomorrow night. After tomorrow’s event it will be out of her hands, and it could come down to how her rivals from Peru, Colombia, Sweden and Ukraine fare at their respective nationals.

“I’m definitely looking at [the rankings] but I’m trying not to get too worried about it,” she says. “Every athlete’s goal is the Olympics but I’m only 20. My main goal for the season was to get to Rome.”

Tuthill has long been a student of her sport and found it “a little daunting” to line up against her idols in the European final earlier this month. “I’d watched all those girls on TV so to be sitting next to them in the call room was something new. I wasn’t ranked anywhere near making the final, I snuck my way in there and I was able to perform close to my best.”

Ireland has a rich legacy in hammer throwing that reached its peak in the early 1900s, when the ‘Irish whales’ – a group of emigrants to the US – won a slew of Olympic medals for their adopted nation. Then there was the legendary Pat O’Callaghan, who won Olympic gold for Ireland in 1928 and 1932, and more recently Eileen O’Keeffe – sixth in the world final in 2007 and still the women’s national record holder with 73.21m.

Tuthill is often sent press clippings about the Irish greats and she reads them all, though her focus is on writing her own name into that story.

She took up athletics at the age of nine, trying various events before settling on the hammer. To save time commuting during her Junior Cert year, her father built a throwing cage at their home near Bandon which she still uses at weekends.

Her main base these days is UCD, where she’s completed her second year on an Ad Astra scholarship, studying science. Her routine is a hectic one, Tuthill doing nine sessions a week between gym work and throwing. By the time she gets home most nights during the college year, she’s “absolutely wrecked”.

But it’s paying dividends. She made a steady progression in recent years under coach Killian Barry, but has also endured hardship. In March 2022, Tuthill dislocated and fractured her elbow after tripping during a throw at an event in Portugal, which led to several months of painstaking rehab. Yet she still finished eighth in the world U-20 final that summer.

As she looks to the future, the potential seems limitless. “Throwers typically peak in their late 20s, early 30s so I am quite young. Over time it’s [about] building up more muscle and getting those technical aspects better. There’s always something you can improve.”

For as long as she can remember, she’s been watching the Olympics, but only in recent years did it feel like she could be part of it. Now it’s closer than ever. “But there’s a lot of girls in and around where I am [on rankings],” she notes. “It’s obviously everyone’s goal, but from the start I always said 2028 is probably the year. I’ll be towards my mid-20s then.”

Still, if the chance comes her way now, she’ll sure as hell take it. Tomorrow’s event in Santry will decide that. One more good effort is all that’s needed. One big throw.