Silver hammer throw nailed

Wairarapa's burgeoning athletics talent have been making a huge impression in throwing events at major track and field meets all over the country in the last few years.
At the forefront of them has been Courtnay Fafeita, who has represented her country at age group level as well as Wellington and Wairarapa on the provincial scene.
A budding journalist, Courtnay will be providing regular news snippets for the Wairarapa Times-Age on happenings within the throwing fraternity and we asked her to focus first on her own performances at the recent national secondary school championships in Timaru as a means of introducing herself to the reading public.
 
Welcome to round one of my column which will hopefully unveil the sporting mystery which is throwing.
For those who don't know I've been doing athletics for the past five years, concentrating mainly on hammer and discus but occasionally competing in shot put and javelin.
The national secondary school championships were a really exciting meet for coach John Quinn and myself as there were eight throwers competing for Wairarapa, a record number for this province.
In recent times there have been only three throwers from here, including myself, so it's fantastic to see the growth in this sphere of athletics.
Overall the Wairarapa throwing team's medal haul came to four, one gold, two silvers and one bronze while another of our competitors made a a final and placed seventh overall. It was a great weekend for us and tremendous results for Wairarapa.
While I was in Timaru I competed in three different events, discus, hammer and javelin. I was using the javelin as a warm-up event because, quite frankly, I'm appalling when it comes to this discipline. I thought it would, however, be helpful to use it to prepare for the discus and hammer, basically to get "in the zone". I was a bit embarrassed though to be throwing a mere 20m alongside girls who can do twice that distance. I finished a "stunning" 22nd (!!) out of 23 and moved on to my next competition, the discus.
I was quite nervous about the discus as I knew the battle would be on for the bronze medal, the first and second placings being pretty much secure before the competition began. Unfortunately, I didn't exactly start off with a bang and spent the first half of the competition in fourth place. When we reached the midway point I was determined to make a bigger impact but I then had a no throw, something which made me even more frustrated than before. And the end result was I failed to perform to my own expectations and finished fourth, leaving my favourite event, the hammer throw,as my last chance for a medal.
Leading into the hammer again I was nervous, this time because of how badly I wanted to place in the top three. I thought I had a really good shot at third place again but there was always the chance of an upset.
My form at this start of this competition was quite useful but I did get a shock when they called out the order for the final and I was in second place. All the girls competing are good friends but I could feel the tension rising as the importance of the next few throws became clear.
I managed to stay in second place right until the last round and then it happened.The girl who was in third threw over 40m, not only putting her in second but meaning I had to throw further than my personal best with my last throw if I was to win the silver medal.
Walking into the circle I was really pumped and once I let the hammer go I turned around in time to watch it miss narrowly going out of bounds. To me it didn't like a big throw and I walked away disappointed, head down.Then I heard the call, distance 42.43m, a personal best for me and the silver medal. It was the most amazing feeling ever, I was stoked!
Footnote: Courtnay's brother Alex Fafeita won gold in the junior boys hammer and silver in the discus at Timaru while Maria Taylor won the bronze medal in the junior girls hammer throw.