27 April 2012

2010 World Junior Champion Sophie Hitchon (Derek Evely) continued her great start to the season by breaking her British hammer record for a second time in a week, and in doing so achieving the Olympic A standard.

Hitchon threw 71.61m twice in the ‘pre Olympic series no. 1 meet’ at the US Olympic Training Centre Chula Vista yesterday, achieving the Olympic Games ‘A’ qualifying standard of 71.50m.

It was just a week ago that Hitchon threw 70.47 at Mount Sac Relays, achieving the Olympic B standard – an improvement of seven centimetres on her previous best mark.

Delighted with her performance, Hitchon said,“I feel really good and training out here has gone really well. It’s just really good to repeat it in competition.

“I love competing – I don’t want to be one of those who say I’m throwing this in training but can’t reproduce it in competition.”

“I think the A standard takes the pressure off my mind, the last few competitions I possibly tried too hard but now I can relax and compete to the best of my abilities.”

Her Coach Derek Evely said, “She’s had a great camp out here in the States and she’s been throwing 70-plus daily, we just needed to let it happen in competition, and she threw it twice today.

“I think 72 or 73m is not out of the question this year – Sophie is a really great competitor and always performs well in that scenario.”

Hitchon was the only Brit to set a GB record yesterday but Goldie Sayers (63.04m) and Greg Rutherford (8.20m) also hit ‘A’ standards in their respective disciplines.