Hammer thrower a Tokyo contender
Rising young star of Kiwi athletics tells Marc Hinton how she’s aiming to make her mark at her first Olympics.
Lauren Bruce had two choices when the force of nature that is Dame Valerie Adams thundered into her world late last year. She could be intimidated or she could be inspired. She could wallow in the shadow of a sporting giant, or she could stride purposefully into her own light.
The events of the last few days stateside suggest the latter has been the case, and the words of athlete and coach back this up. This impressive 23-year-old, who will make her first appearance in a New Zealand senior team at the Tokyo Olympics (July 23-August 8), appears to be very much casting her own journey in the company of some impressive training partners.
In case you need catching up, here’s the backstory: Bruce, a hammer thrower, has followed the same pathway as fellow Ian Baird-coached Timaru athlete, and former shot put world champion, Tom Walsh, and made her way into Dale Stevenson’s crack Christchurch throwing squad. They were joined late last year by double Olympic gold medallist and four-time world champion Adams to complete a holy trinity of globally elite performers.
For Walsh little changed. A strong and well-established personality and thrower, the addition of Adams to his wider training sphere created barely a ripple. If anything he was just grateful to have a veteran of her standing around to swap war stories over coffees.
But Bruce was different. A young athlete, yet to establish herself on the international scene, still figuring her way forward at the top levels, Adams’ presence, alongside the already single-minded Walsh, could have proved daunting. Unsettling even.
Could have. But didn’t, according to coach Stevenson. Before Bruce left for the US to embark on Olympic preparations, he told the Sunday Star-Times: ‘‘Without a doubt Lauren feeds off and benefits from being in the environment with experienced, world-class athletes. But she’s also not in awe of that, and quite at peace with charting her own path and being her own person.
‘‘While she has a very healthy respect and relationship with Val and Tom, she doesn’t see herself as third in line. She’s there to forge her own path, and the other two respect that as well. Lauren is an amazing person and athlete, and I’m excited to see where things go.’’
Stevenson got a pleasant hint at the trajectory in play when Bruce lined up at a seemingly low-key Thursday night throws meet in Tucson, Arizona, last week. It was in many ways the proverbial toe in the waters of international competition, but delivered a dramatic result.
Bruce, a one-time gymnast who turned to throwing as a 14-year-old when injury diverted her down a different runway, threw a New Zealand and Oceania record of 74.61 metres to secure victory at the Tucson Elite Classic. It not only reclaimed the national mark she had conceded to Kiwi rival Julia Ratcliffe (73.55m) at the national championships in March, but ranked her the eighth best thrower in the world for 2021.
Stevenson, just hours from boarding a plane to join her in the US, was ecstatic: ‘‘She’s not content in the shadows of Tom and Val. Lauren has no idea how good she can be, but this might give her a small hint. With some time and more experience against the best in the world, she will be dangerous in Tokyo.’’
Bruce talked about the dynamic of training alongside
‘‘It’s important not to count yourself out, even if it is your first Games. I don’t want to use it as an excuse, to be just filling a spot. Why else would you be going but to compete?’’
Walsh and Adams and was emphatic there were no impediments on her side of the equation.
‘‘It’s pretty intense sometimes,’’ she says. ‘‘Everyone brings that. We all like to work at such a high level, to such a high standard every day. But I wouldn’t change that for the world. It’s the best possible situation to be in.’’
In terms of the Adams influence, Bruce said she’d taken nothing but positives from the presence of one of the greatest to have pulled on the silver fern in her sport.
‘‘We don’t throw together that much being in different events, but just having her in the gym is so valuable. I’m chasing her numbers and she’s chasing some of mine. I haven’t really had that before, and it’s different to chasing the boys.’’
But she stopped short of casting Adams as a ‘‘mentor figure’’.
‘‘Probably not so much,’’ she shrugs. ‘‘There’s a lot of stuff I’ve had to work on over the season, and I’ve focused on working closely with Dale on that . . . but we’re going to be spending a lot of time together going into the Games (Adams joins them in early June) and it will be useful having her around because she’s got so much knowledge.’’
Bruce may need that experience as there are sure to be ups and downs on the path to her first Games. Even in Arizona the young athlete experienced a minor dip when, less than 48 hours later, she finished a disappointing sixth in a much classier meet.
Bruce managed a best of 72.70m at the USA Track and Field Throws Festival, but saw the five women ahead all throw past the 75m mark. Gwen Barry (76.79m), Brooke Anderson (76.36) and Deanna Price (75.88), the world’s top three throwers for the year, completed an impressive American clean sweep.
In many ways Bruce’s second outing in Arizona may have been even more valuable than her record-setting feats a few days earlier. It’s precisely that top-end experience that Stevenson is hunting for his athlete.
‘‘Lauren’s a first-timer here — not only has she not been to an Olympics before, she has not made a senior team before. There is a cutting-your-teeth process that she now has to go through. There’s a big difference between being able to throw 70-plus regularly at a domestic level, then doing it under the pump against the best. Our aim between now and Tokyo is to get repeated exposure to that, and for Lauren to get comfortable expressing herself at that level.
‘‘We know physically and technically she’s capable of beating the best in the world, but for the next couple of years now things are going to come thick and fast . . . hence getting experience under our belt now is critical.’’
In some respects Bruce has a free pop at these Olympics without the pressure to deliver a stunning result. Her best days are well in the future. No one expects too much first up. Except her.
‘‘It’s important not to count yourself out, even if it is your first Games,’’ she says. ‘‘I don’t want to use it as an excuse, to be just filling a spot. Why else would you be going but to compete? I will be doing everything I can to make sure I’m competitive.’’
A big part of that has been her rivalry with Ratcliffe that will see New Zealand send two women to compete in hammer for the first time at the Olympics (Murray Cheater is the only previous Kiwi to have thrown the implement at the Games, back in 1976).
Bruce started an intriguing back and forth when she claimed Ratcliffe’s national record in September of 2020; the Waikato athlete hit back in March with that 73.55; now Bruce is back on top courtesy of that 74.61 in Tucson.
‘‘What she does doesn’t take away from what I do, and viceversa,’’ says Bruce. ‘‘Every comp I’ve gone into this season where she’s been there, you know you have to bring it, to throw the best you have on the day.
‘‘She’s said that me throwing that [record] gave her a bit of fire back that was probably missing. For so long I was chasing her and there was like 10 metres between us. Now that gap has closed, and we can use that rivalry to keep pushing each other.’’
That’s Bruce all right. Inspired by others. Driven by her own innate desire to succeed.