Hammer glamour: Duo put the hammer down
Commonwealth Games champion Julia Ratcliffe has a challenger at the top of Kiwi athletics, and she’s loving it. Marc Hinton reports
Julia Ratcliffe would be a boxing promoter’s worst nightmare. She doesn’t do trash talk, or mind games, or even needless hype.
As far as this outstanding Kiwi athlete, and Commonwealth Games champion, is concerned, there is plenty of room in the hammer throwing circle for two.
Ratcliffe, the 27-year-old Hamilton athlete, now has some company at the top of the New Zealand hammer throwing tree.
In fact, you could even say this two-time Commonwealth Games medallist (gold in 2018, silver in 2014) has been surpassed by rising young Cantabrian Lauren Bruce who now owns not just the New Zealand record, but also the country’s only automatic Olympic qualifying mark.
Bruce had some 2020, for all the annum’s pandemic-induced anxieties. The 23-year-old Dale Stevenson-trained athlete smashed Ratcliffe’s national record in September in Hastings when she hurled the hammer out to an uncharted 73.47 metres. That was more than a metre better than the 72.35m achieved by Ratcliffe in Hamilton last February.
Because that throw came outside athletics’ official Olympic qualifying window, she still had to surpass the entry standard of 72.50m to all but nail down a spot for Tokyo (should it actually go ahead), which she duly achieved by tossing 72.67m at a meet in Christchurch in early December.
Now it’s Ratcliffe on the outside looking in somewhat, setting herself the dual ambition of notching both an Olympic qualifying distance and reclaiming her national record this domestic season which kicks off in earnest on Saturday with Hastings’ Potts Classic.
The power pair – both ranked inside the world’s top-10 for 2020 – will very much provide some hammer glamour to tonight’s Potts Classic – a meet that will include former world shot put champion Tom Walsh, two-time Olympic gold medallist Dame Valerie Adams, sprint standout Eddie Osei-Nketia and, all going to plan, pole vault star Eliza McCartney among a stellar lineup of Kiwi athletes.
And as far as Ratcliffe is concerned, a burgeoning rivalry with Bruce is not only good for both athletes and their sport, but just what the doctor ordered for a pair with ambitions of sending that ball and chain out into new territory.
‘‘Only good can come from it,’’ says Ratcliffe of a head-to-head battle with Bruce which tipped marginally back in her favour when she pipped Bruce by 60cm at December’s Night of 5s meet in Auckland.
‘‘I’ve seen her training and competed against her for many years now, and not only is it awesome to see her reap the rewards of her hard work, but it lifts the bar on what you think is possible for yourself when you see people like you in your country, training in a similar way and doing the same thing.
‘‘It’s definitely increased the motivation a lot. Seeing that New Zealand record go wasn’t easy, but I hope we can both add a few more centimetres and metres to that over the next year or so. Having domestic competition at an Olympic level is not something a lot of athletes here have and I’m really grateful for that.’’
Ratcliffe acknowledges there will be ‘‘intensity and ‘‘pressure’’ tonight when she steps out in the first of her three targeted domestic meets in 2021 (the Porritt Classic and national champs are the
others). ‘‘It’s so cool … you don’t have to search for ways to motivate yourself,’’ she says.
But what there will not be, adds this Princeton graduate who now works part-time for the Reserve Bank, is any trash talk with her rival. ‘‘For me that detracts energy from me doing well. I’m not out there trying to make other people do worse. I’d hate to think I won a competition because I said something mean to someone and they performed badly, as opposed to I beat them on their best that day. To me that’s a satisfying day, so I really don’t go for intimidation or anything like that.’’
Quite the opposite, in fact. ‘‘It’s not me or Lauren, it’s me and Lauren. As long as we’re both throwing far, I feel like there are no losers there.
‘‘We’re both out there to perform and express our training, so I don’t think we’re even thinking about
each other in competition. Athletics is such an individual sport, especially throwing where it’s my turn, then it’s your turn. If you’re thinking about what everyone else is doing, you can’t control that, so it’s wasted energy.’’
Ratcliffe says she’s feeling ‘‘fast and strong’’ ahead of a Hastings meet that usually serves up userfriendly conditions. ‘‘It’s all down to technique on the day,’’ she adds. ‘‘You can be feeling crap but if your technique is good then it still goes quite a long way. It’s all about keeping that technical form and being consistent across training and competition.’’
She considers 72.50 the ‘‘first step’’ of this season’s journey. ‘‘You’ve got to walk before you run. Securing that Olympic qualifier would take a lot of pressure off. But it’s cool to have a bunch of pressure on and see if you crumble, or if you don’t. It’s not just physical training,
but that mental preparation to give yourself the tools to put everything aside and just focus on what you need to.’’
Ratcliffe and Bruce are a study of contrasts in terms of their training environments. While Bruce is ensconced in Stevenson’s crack Christchurch throwing group, Ratcliffe does all her technical training at home where she’s coached by her father, Dave.
She reckons it’s not only a regime that holds her in good stead when she heads to major meets offshore, but one that works for her technically.
‘‘It’s an asset having one-on-one coaching and that undivided attention because that technical stuff is so individualised,’’ she says.
In terms of the Olympics, and uncertainty swirling around whether the event will even go ahead, the Hamilton athlete very much has the blinkers on. ‘‘We’ve
been told it’s going ahead … so I’ve told myself it’s happening, just get yourself there and we’ll figure out the rest from there.’’
In many ways Covid has affected Ratcliffe less than most of her peers. She was able to train as per normal through lockdown, and with women’s hammer not featuring on the Diamond League circuit she hasn’t been denied key international events either. ‘‘You can’t miss what you don’t have,’’ she shrugs. The coaching dynamic with her father is also one she remains committed to.
‘‘We’ve had a lot of fun over the last few months training. We’ve had our ups and down in our relationship, and grown as a coach and athlete over that time. But I think we’ve hit a sweet spot of communicating well and just getting on with it.’’
That sweet spot gets its big test in Hastings.