Improvisation proves key as Mayho maintains momentum
IF BRITISH hammer champion Jess Mayho is healthy enough to take her place in the throwing circle to defend her title later this summer, it will owe much to two key attributes – resilience and improvisation.
For the 26-year-old from Leeds has spent much of the coronavirus-enforced lockdown refusing to let a foot injury damage her upward trajectory, by using all means necessary to do so.
The rising star put the seal on a year in which she put three metres on her personal best by winning the British title in Birmingham last July.
It earned her a Great Britain vest for the European Winter Throwing Cup in March, but Covid-19, allied with a stress response injury in the fifth metartarsal in her foot, halted her momentum. It meant the first part of lockdown was spent rehabbing, before one of her long-time sponsors answered her SOS for training resources.
“Sutcliffe Construction have been supporting me since 2015, so I contacted them saying ‘I’ve nowhere to throw, do you know of any farmer’s fields?’,” Mayho told The Yorkshire Post.
“It sounds crazy but we need 75 metres in length, plus 70 metres of width and a good area to throw off.
“So they built me a throwing square at their headquarters out at Hellifield near Skipton.
“The in-field where the hammer lands is narrower than where I’d normally throw, so there’s a few fences in my way – but they said ‘if I smash them, don’t worry, we’ll rebuild them’.
“So I’m travelling up from Leeds five days a week. It should only be for five or six weeks
before throwing facilities reopen, but it’s five or six weeks I wouldn’t have had.
“When I needed them most, my sponsors came through.”
Mayho also took up the offer of her gym Implexus to take home three bits of equipment if she maintained her membership through lockdown.
“I’ve got about 130kilos of weight in my downstairs cupboard,” she laughed. “I’ve been lifting weights in my front garden – my neighbours must think I’m crazy. I’ve also been using wheelie bins as a squat rack. You just have to be inventive. This lockdown has been a test of resilience.”
It will all be worth it if she can get back to Manchester on the weekend of August 8/9 to defend her British title.
“I’m doing everything in my means to get there,” she added.
“There was a lot of pressure on me going into last year’s championships. Sophie Hitchon (British No 1) had withdrawn so people expected me to win. I’d never had that pressure on me.
“To win brought mixed emotions – I could have thrown further but at a championships it’s all about the title.
“It wasn’t just a victory for me, it was for everyone who has helped, my mum and dad who pick up the hammers in the pouring rain when I’m training.”
The question now is will Mayho make it to Tokyo?
The postponement of the 2020 Olympics may well work to her advantage, and coming on the back of the enormous strides made in 2019, it has given her renewed hope of being one of the Britons taken to Tokyo in the hammer competition.
“The distance I finished on last year was 66m44, that’s still short of the Olympic standard, but I’m not writing anything off,” she said.
“It’s important to be aware of what is out there but not solely concentrate on that. I need to work on getting the consistency week on week, month on month.
“The Olympics is more of a realistic opportunity for me now.”