Hammer throwing feast

LETTING GO: Matt Bloxham in action. Emma Kruszona (below)PHOTOS/FILE

Plans are well advanced for the first hammer throwing festival to be held in Wairarapa.

Just how many throwers and coaches will take part in the event, which will get under way at the Colin Pugh Sports Bowl in Masterton on the evening of Friday, December 7, and continue over the next two days, is yet to be confirmed but numbers are expected to be about 40.

Noted Carterton-based fields event coach John Quinn is one of the prime initiators of the festival - the fourth of its kind to be held in New Zealand - and he said it would provide huge benefits for the participants, the coaches through the opportunity it would give them to network and build knowledge and the throwers because of the chance to experience high quality competition.

"It's a win-win situation, everybody involved should gain something positive," Quinn said. "It's a big deal for hammer throwing, very big."

Attending the festival in one of his first duties for Athletics New Zealand will be their newly appointed national field events coach, Dale Stevenson, who was good enough at his own specialist event, the shot put, to represent Australia at the Olympics.

As to the throwers there is no doubt who will grab the most attention. Aucklander Matthew Bloxham might be only 18 but he is already regarded as an enormous talent and showed he was nearing peak form at a meeting in Auckland last weekend when he sent the 6kg hammer out to 70.01m, just 66cm short of his New Zealand under-20 and under-19 record. Bloxham has made no secret of the fact he is aiming to beat that record at the Masterton meet, and it would be a game punter who would bet against him doing it.

Travelling north from Timaru for the festival is Lauren Bruce, who is the top ranked female in New Zealand in the under-20 age group. She has a best throw of close to 57m and it would not surprise to see her better that effort in Masterton.

Of the Wairarapa throwers Tom Quinn - son of John - and Emma Kruszona should give a strong account of themselves. A national and Oceania age group champion, Quinn is now back home after completing his first year of studies at Lincoln University where he has been awarded a scholarship which will enable him to train with their high-performance centre next year. His focus over the past few months has been on "bulking up" but his performances have still been good enough to suggest he could set a pb and even threaten the 60m mark at the Masterton festival.

Kruszona is the second-highest ranked under-20 female thrower and while there is still a decent gap between her and Lauren Bruce just having the latter to compete against should bring out the best in her. She was a bronze medallist in her age group at the 2013 Oceania championships in an event in which Bruce took the gold.