'A long time coming' - Tuthill throws a new PB to claim European silver in Nicosia 

Her new mark improves on the 71.75m she threw back in August of last year, and moves her closer to Eileen O’Keeffe’s national record of 73.21m.

SWING FREE: World and Olympic finalist Nicola Tuthill won silver at the European Throwing Cup in Nicosia. Pic: Athletics Ireland

Nicola Tuthill claimed a superb silver medal for Ireland at the European Throwing Cup in Nicosia, Cyprus on Saturday, the 22-year-old Bandon athlete smashing her personal best in the hammer throw with 72.48m.

That improved the 71.75m she threw in Dublin last year and moved her closer to Eileen O’Keeffe’s Irish senior record of 73.21m. It’s the first ever senior medal for Ireland at the event, with Tuthill winning gold in the U-23 category last year and two U-23 silvers in the years prior.

“It’s been coming a long time, and it makes it extra special to do it in my first senior outing,” said Tuthill, who went into the event ranked 12th. “There were a lot of really strong girls there and it’s pretty cool to be able to beat them.” The 2024 Olympian, who finished 11th in the world final in Tokyo last year, faced injury setbacks during the winter but put those firmly behind her in her season debut, finishing second to Katrine Koch Jacobsen, who set a Danish record of 75.52m.

“I missed the heavy block of winter training and we’ll go back into heavy training now, get those reps in, and probably compete again at the end of May,” she said. “But the main one this year is the European Championships in August, it’s about gearing up towards that and producing more big throws.” “I’m always adapting my programmes to make sure I get stronger every year and even coming off those injuries, there’s a lot of different things I’ve done behind the scenes, a lot of one percenters.” 

Elsewhere on the first day of the event, Anna Gavigan finished fifth in the U-23 women’s discus with a best of 51.07m. Niamh Fogarty (discus), Eric Favors (shot put) and Conor Cusack (javelin) will all be in action on Sunday.

Meanwhile at the NCAA Indoor Championships in Arkansas on Friday night, national indoor record holder Maeve O’Neill came up short of making the 800m final, the Providence College student finishing fourth in her heat in 2:03.40. Abdel Laadjel, a student at the University of Oregon, came home 14th in the men’s 5000m in 14:00.11, while Lauren Roy clocked 7.29 to finish 16th overall in the 60m and 23.03 in her heat of the 200m, which left her 11th overall.

Elizabeth Ndudi, the 2023 European U-20 champion, was well below her best in the women’s long jump, the University of Illinois student managing a best of 6.04m which placed her 13th.