Bruce hammers home

It takes a lot to impress athletics super coach Dale Stevenson who tracks the progress of Kiwi shot put great Tom Walsh on a daily basis. But Lauren Bruce achieved that in a performance that puts the young Cantabrian within touching distance of the Tokyo Olympics.

Bruce produced the standout showing of Athletics New Zealand’s Spring Series meets in the last of three hitouts in Hastings on Sunday when she smashed the New Zealand and Oceania records for the hammer throw with a stunning succession of distances.

The 23-year-old Timaruraised, now Christchurchdomiciled athlete, who trains alongside Walsh in Stevenson’s elite squad, obliterated her previous best of 68.14 metres, as well as Julia Ratcliffe’s national record of 72.35m, when she blasted the hammer out to stunning 73.47m with her fifth throw at Mitre 10 Park.

That not only surpassed her previous competition best by more than five metres (five of her six throws sailed past her old personal best), but puts her up to sixth on the 2020 world rankings, four spots ahead of Ratcliffe, with two Kiwis now sitting inside the global top 10.

Stevenson told Stuff. ‘‘But to do it convincingly and repeatedly in one competition is a good affirmation of where she’s at. It wasn’t a total surprise, but the way she did it was impressive.’’

After coming through the sport as a youngster dabbling in many aspects, Bruce, who has a gymnastics background, only decided to focus fully on the hammer throw around October 2019 – a year out from the originally scheduled Olympics.

She had been a national-level triple jumper in her younger days and until last October also a more than handy discus exponent. But Stevenson made it clear a decision had to be made.

‘‘Lauren is the real deal,’’ added the national throws coach. ‘‘We talked about it. She could probably be a Commonwealth Games-level athlete in a few different events . . . but to be an Olympic-level and Olympic medal-level athlete, hammer was the avenue for her to go down.

‘‘For two comps with no direct competition at the back end of the Christchurch winter,