At not even 18y New Zealand Hammer thrower Matthew BLOXHAM is certainly the best ever young hammer of the country and one of the best in the world of his generation after finishing 3rd in the 2013 World youth rankings when performing a 79,74m record throw with the 5kg. After throwing an easy 69,11m (well over the IAAF standards of 67,50m) with the 6kg in december , the young kiwi was thinking that his qualification for the 2014 World juniors champs was not going to be a problem .But, bad luck , the local athletics authorities decided to go for an elitist junior "stategy" (? ) and raised the standards to 71,85m (B !!!) or 73,50m (A). probably the most difficult standards in the world. That was the end of the hopes for many young New Zealand athletes (so far , only 3 athletes will go to Eugene instead of 23 in Moncton 2010 !) . But Matt was not among them and still confident he would throw over 72m by just training harder . Bad luck again ,premature hard training on a 17 years body is increasing the risks of injury and this is exactly what happened with a strained knee tendon which became progressively a major problem. Bad luck still, Matt had to keep training and throwing in competition because there was no answer to his request of a period extension (NZ limit date was 6 april , 3 months before the rest of the world to make the selection even more difficult !!!) and he could not rest an treat his injury properly . This aggravated so much the injury that he finally had to stop completely and start a real treatment including plasma injections . Even with the help of a great team of doctors , physios and conditioners , this lasted 3 months before he was allowed to start progressively training and throwing. In between the qualification period extension had been finally "given" (too late !) up to 30th june but there were only 6 weeks left to complete the physical recovery and do the technical recovery as it was soon obvious that Matt had completely lost his technique , rhythm and speed , struggling to reach 50m in his first throwing sessions. it was "Mission impossible" to get to near 72m and a 3m PB in such a short time . But Matt trained just harder and harder in the NZL winter conditions. On 30 may , 1st test comp , he got 65,75m ; 2 weeks later at the Australian trials he moved to 67,30m , then there was only one test competition left on 28th june in Auckland . Bad luck again , the conditions were really bad with cold , wind , rain and mud , but Matt was back at his best and after a cautious start at 66,75m , went for the big one and got it at the 4th attempt with a new NZL record at 70,18m , then even better with 70,67m in the 5th round .But he needed still 1,20m more in the last round to satisfy the selector and all people present were crossing their fingers for a miracle ! Unfortunately , the throw went out of control and there was no last minute miracle . There will be no world junior championship for the young Kiwi , probably the only national leader in the world over 70m not having the chance to compete in Eugene. Really sad and unfair after such a great achievement but hopefully for Matt , there will be a revenge one day , revenge over bad luck and revenge over adversity. There is no Justice in sport ... Miracles happen sometimes ...but Revenges are always possible ! DP

• published: 01 Jul 2014
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