Not many can say they prepared for an Olympic Games in a technical event on the family farm, but that’s exactly how Cork’s Nicola Tuthill became the first Irish woman to compete in the throws at an Olympics in sixteen years.

The home set-up was built by Tuthill’s father in 2019 to reduce the family’s time spent travelling to training.

Tuthill is coached by Killian Barry, an ex-hammer thrower himself, who explains that the home throwing arena has been a key part of her success.

“It’s invaluable to have a place on site for her to train, even having a place nearby you can’t guarantee its availability,” Barry says on Athletics Ireland’s Inside Training Youtube series.

“She can totally decide when she wants to train, that’s been a gamechanger for her, rolling out of bed and go straight into the ring and do her work there.

“It’s getting more and more difficult nowadays to find places to train, a lot of tracks might have astro surfaces in the middle or are used by local teams. Having the throwing ring available has been a big part of her success.”

Barry has recently moved to Tuthill’s native Cork, which may be another difference maker in terms of Tuthill’s success.

“This year is different now, because Killian has come down to Cork, I get down pretty much every weekend,” Tuthill details.

The 21-year-old is a scholarship student at UCD and explains she doesn’t have far to go, whether she is in Dublin or Cork.

“I’m really lucky with UCD, they are really accommodating as I have the gym and track on campus, in UCD I don’t have to leave campus, and then when I’m at home I don’t have to leave home either, so it’s quite handy for balancing my training.”

The training session gives insight into how high-level throwers operate, and Barry explains that this is a typical part of for the competition season.

“It’s just a typical session for us; we kind of have a blend of different weights involved.

“We are throwing 5kg and 4kg, and then some 3kg at the end. It’s a technical session, we aren’t looking for world records, were just trying to build on some of the technical points of this block.

“We are in the last block before the competition period, so real attention to detail on some technical things and making sure we are logging the right volume and intensity before the competition season.”

The technique focus and volume management worked, as a few weeks later Tuthill went on to throw a new U23 national record of 71.71 metres in Finland on June 11.

Tuthill also agrees that home comforts are key and explains that the different sticks and poles dotted over the field are her own distance markers.

“It’s nice to be at home. It’s a lot easier for me… I feel like I know my home cage, and I have my own markers and can judge myself a lot better here,” she said.

Tuthill made the European final last year and proceeded to qualify for the Olympic Games aged just 19.

This year, the World Championships are in Tokyo in September, and the Cork woman is currently well within the quota to secure her spot, but Barry explains the emphasis is on Tuthill’s long-term development.

“The main goal for me is to remain injury-free and get back-to-back training periods done without any interference.

“To keep accumulating all the throws and reps she is doing, and each year just adding a little bit more to what we are trying to do, she has handled training quite well this past winter period… So, she is in a good spot.”

Throws in Ireland are currently experiencing somewhat of a revival with three underage international medals achieved in 2024, along with Tuthill’s achievements, it represents a new golden era for the discipline.

Tuthill explains that her choice of the technical hammer event fell to her in probably the most Irish way possible, at a communion, and the rest is history.

“I tried it at a local athletics camp, you try all the events, and I was at my neighbour’s daughter’s communion who lives just up the road, and I told him ‘I really like this I think I might try it’ and I was joking that I might want to do it at counties, and he was like ‘Aw I used to throw it’, which was crazy because I never knew that and it was completely by chance and it started from there.”

Watch Inside Training with Nicola Tuthill from 7.00pm on 19/6/2025 on the athletics ireland youtube channel. 

The link below will become usable when the episode is released at 7:00pm this evening.