Cork's Nicola Tuthill impresses in hammer throw final at World Athletics Championship

In the Women’s Hammer Throw, Nicola Tuthill delivered a strong performance in her maiden global final appearance throwing a best of 69.49 metres to finish 11th.

The West Cork native showed her immense potential on day three of the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo.

The 21-year-old, based in UCD AC, had gone into the championships ranked in the 20th on season’s bests but excelled to reach the final.

“I’m obviously a bit disappointed not to throw over 70 metres,” she said. 

I was really hoping to sneak out a PB but 11th in the world is still amazing and I’m really proud of that.

“I’m still really young, to make a final is a bonus. I’m a competitor so I always wanted to make it.” 

There was disappointment in the Women’s 100m Hurdles for Sarah Lavin (Emerald AC) despite finishing 13th overall in the event. The Limerick woman finished fourth in her semi-final, clocking a time of 12.86 seconds.

Lavin, who had been ranked 28th on season’s bests going into the championships, was emotional when speaking afterwards.

“I’m disappointed, not with the placing but more so with my performance,” she said. “Coming up short, you just get sick of it. There so much faith, belief, love and time that’s invested in me, I’m forever indebted for that. I hope someday to deliver something that we can all be really proud of.”

Andrew Coscoran (Star of the Sea AC) produced the performance of his life to advance to the final of the Men’s 1500m.

The Balbriggan native executed his race plan to near perfection as he positioned himself near the head of affairs throughout, before finding space and kicking strongly down the home straight.

Coscoran clocked a time of 3:35.65 to finish fifth in his semi-final, ensuring he had done enough to progress to his first global major championship final.

“I’ve been trying to make a world final for about five years now, I’ve put a lot of work in and made some mistakes along the way trying to make it, but everything clicked today. I’m absolutely chuffed,” he told Athletics Ireland afterwards.

“I was seventh for a lot of the race, so in touching distance of qualification for the whole thing…I was just looking for a gap then. Down that last 100 metres I felt like I had a bit more to give. I think I can run well in the final, it’s new territory for me but I’ll go in there and give it socks,” he added.

There is no morning session on Tuesday in Tokyo, but the evening session has action aplenty to look forward to for Team Ireland. Cian McPhillips (UCD AC) makes his World Championship debut in the heats of the Men’s 800m, before seasoned campaigner Mark English (Finn Valley AC) takes to the track in the same event.

Sharlene Mawdsley (Newport AC) will then look for a big performance in the Women’s 400m semi-finals, before Sarah Healy (UCD AC) races in the final of the Women’s 1500m.