THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM
NASH Lowis from Charters Towers will now be known as the man with the golden arm, after coming from nowhere to win an under20 international athletics gold medal.
The 18- year- old is already throwing further than what the late Olympian Jarrod Bannister was at the same age. He overcame injury to win gold in the Finland competition.
CHARTERS Towers javelin thrower Nash Lowis has overcome an injury that threatened to derail his campaign to win gold at the World Under- 20 Athletics Championships in Finland.
After recovering from lower- back issues, a bad hamstring tear then disrupted the 18- year- old’s preparations, and the North Star Athletics Club member only booked his place on the Australian team five weeks ago.
But he stepped up when it mattered by throwing a personal best 75.31m on his fifth and last throw in Saturday night’s final, easily eclipsing his previous best of 71.24m, to beat American Tzuriel Pedigo ( 73.76m).
Lowis booked his place on the Australian squad by throwing 69.67m at the North Queensland Student Games in Townsville early last month.
Such were the concerns over his hamstring, it was the only throw he completed at the event, and his last competitive outing before the world championships.
“I’m over the moon. I was not expecting that whatsoever,” he said. “I usually do pretty well in competitions. I don’t get too fazed by the atmosphere of it all. I perform better in competition than training.”
Lowis is already throwing further at the same age than fellow Townsville javelin thrower and 2010 Commonwealth Games g gold medallist Jarrod Bannister, who died suddenly in February this year.
North Star Athletics Club president Daniel Hughes says Lowis has a promising future, and praised his ability to overcome his injury obstacles.
“He did some stuff at the AIS ( Australian Institute of Sport) and that’s where they picked up that his back was an issue,” Hughes said.
“I don’t think it was fractured, but it was the next step off. They had to pause, and do nothing for a bit.
“After that back injury, I think it mentally played with him. Then when he got slowly back into training, he tore his hamstring quite badly.
“He did one throw at the Student Games and stopped ( once he qualified for the world championships), they were quite worried about the hamstring.
“Before Finland there was a couple of pre- world champs events, but he went straight from the Student Games to there. I think his future is huge. He’s already throwing more than Jarrod Bannister at the same age.”
Lowis is the first Australian to win javelin gold at the under- 20 world championships. His throw of 75.31m is the second longest throw by an Australian at the event, behind Steven Madeo’s bronze medalwinning effort of 75.74m in 1996.
Lowis was only second at the Australian Trials in March, behind Cameron McEntyre, but turned a lot of heads when he threw 74.38m to top qualifying.
“Every coach is different but most of the stuff my coach teaches me is very different to how other javelin coaches train, it’s something I really like.” Lowis said.
Charters Towers Mayor Liz Schmidt said the community was very proud of Lowis and very excited about the win.
“The whole community has been behind him,” she said.