Inverness thrower hits personal best in Tulsa and eyes up Olympics

Great Britain international George Evans (Inverness Harriers) is showing good form in the US.

The shot and discus specialist turned his hand to the hammer at the Oral Roberts Invitational meeting at Tulsa, Oklahoma, and set a personal best of 53.92m when taking third position.

It’s the first time he has thrown the 7.26kg hammer and he hasn’t competed in any lighter hammer competitions since 2017.

Evans also competed in one of his more favoured disciplines, the discus, and won with a throw of 50.77m.

Earlier in the season he achieved a shot personal best of 17.79m at the Big 12 championships in Texas.

That mark is good for the fourth best of all-time by a Scot in an indoor competition with the record of 18.73m having been set by Edinburgh’s Paul Buxton in 1977.

Evans hopes to return to Britain this summer to compete in the Olympic trials but he’ll also be chasing 2022 Commonwealth Games qualification marks.

Another Inverness thrower, Andrew Bowsher, has also been making his mark on the US college indoor circuit with a series of good performances.

The former Millburn Academy pupil is now studying geology and international relations at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania.

He opened his account for Lafayette by clearing a personal best of 44.83m to take seventh position in a high quality hammer competition in the Lehigh meeting in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where he also cleared 33.96m in the discus.

Bowsher later improved his discus to 37.73m for second position in a meeting on home ground at Easton while he was close to his best with another good throw of 44.77m in the hammer.