Sophie Hitchon strode on to the infield for her first throw in the Olympic stadium for five years, put on her glove, whirled and hurled a hammer 73.05m. She then marched off, qualification for tomorrow’s final secured, to a loud ovation from a capacity crowd.
This was an impressive return to the stadium where Hitchon first showed her competitive flair in qualifying against the odds for the final in London 2012 with a personal best. She finished 12th.
“It doesn’t really matter whether you qualify in one throw or three as long as you make it to the final,” said the 26-year-old. “But it is nice to get it done in the first round. It does your confidence the world of good.”
Having qualified 11th out of 12 in Rio, Hitchon was understandably nervous about cutting it too fine at the Olympic Park, not least because this was her first appearance in front of a home crowd since winning a bronze medal at the Olympics, the first for a British athlete in the hammer for 92 years and the first in a field event since Tess Sanderson won gold in the javelin in Los Angeles in 1984.
Five years ago, Hitchon’s arrival on the track was largely ignored; yesterday she was one of the stars of the morning session and the pressure will only build for the final. “My form held up even with the pressure you feel out there,” said Hitchon. “But I don’t come here thinking I’m going to win a medal because I won one last year. Everyone knows it doesn’t work like that.
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“I’m not going to lie, it [competing in front of a home crowd] does make you really nervous. I feel like you have your own pressure on yourself and then everyone else is here to support you, so you want to perform well. Once the final comes, I will just try to execute my technique and do nothing fancy.”
“Competing in front of a home crowd does make you really nervous. My form held up well
Hitchon took a little time off after Rio, spending time with her family in Burnley and preaching the virtues of hammer throwing to star-struck children in local schools. But she was soon back at her winter training base in San Diego preparing for these world championships and trying to forget about the past. “Sometimes it [Rio] feels like a blur when I look back at it,” she says. “I do remember it and I draw from it when you’ve got hard sessions in the gym or whatever. You remember that it is worth it and you can do it. I’m always wanting to do better and move on to the next thing.”
The British thrower was less than a metre off her season’s best of 73.97, which was only half a metre short of her personal best set on the final throw in Rio. But she came into London only 10th on the list for 2017 behind the formidable Anita Wlodarczyk, the double Olympic and defending world champion. Unlike the Pole, who can rely on muscle when her rhythm breaks down, Hitchon has to time every throw to near perfection to compete at the top level. Her medal in Rio was a triumph of technique and mental resilience and she showed again yesterday that she is a peerless competitor.
“I’ve always liked competing at major championships,” Hitchon said. “It’s where I perform my best. I like going into a championships and being part of a team. The last time I was here, at London 2012, it was my first Olympics and my aim was to get through to the final. That was all I had.
“Even in 2014 if someone had said: ‘You’ll get a medal in 2016’ I’d have laughed in their face. It was just impossible.” Another medal for Hitchon tomorrow would no longer be such a surprise.
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Hitchon first broke the British hammer record in 2011 and has done so every year since, apart from 2014.
“I remember that year, leading up to the [2015] world championships in China, hadn’t gone particularly well. It was really difficult to get back into training that winter,” she recalled.
“I had quite a few doubts and I went through a difficult few months.”
Hitchon made small, subtle improvements to her technique and over time, with the guiding light of her Swedish coach, Tore Gustafsson, her confidence grew. “He is the main reason for my success because he is so incredibly positive,” she said. “He always finds the right words to say.”