A superb opening round throw from Oisín Joyce has won him a bronze medal in the javelin at the World Under-20 Athletics Championships in Lima, Peru, the first time any Irish athlete has made the podium in a throwing event at this level.
The 19-year-old from Ballinrobe in Co Mayo always knew he’d likely need to produce the throw of his life, and Joyce did exactly that – throwing 73.89 metres with his first attempt, extending his own Irish under-20 record by 17cm in the process.
That looked to be good enough to win him the silver medal for much of the competition, before a final round throw of 76.81m Tom Teršek from Slovenia nudged Joyce out of the silver medal position, with China’s Xiaobo Wang finishing second with his 75.50.
The cool, damp conditions in Lima certainly suited Joyce’s style of throwing, and he becomes only the fifth Irish athlete to win a medal at the World Under-20 Championships, which were first staged in 1986. Antoine Burke won silver in the men’s high jump in 1994, Ciara Mageean claimed 1,500m silver in 2010, Sommer Lecky won silver in the women’s high jump in 2018, and the women’s 4x100m relay team of Molly Scott, Ciara Neville, Gina Akpe-Moses, Patience Jumbo-Gula and Rhasidat Adeleke won silver in the same year.
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Well before Joyce improved the Irish under-20 javelin record to 73.72m to win the Mannheim International meeting in Germany in June he’d already built a reputation as one of the most promising throwers in the country.
Last summer, when still only 18, he won his first Irish senior javelin title for Lake District AC, the small juvenile club in Ballinrobe, founded just over 10 years ago. He went on to finish sixth in the European Under-20 Championships.
His 73.72m broke new ground again, moving him to fourth on the Irish all-time senior list and also qualifying him for Peru, where he travelled out ranked sixth. Joyce first took up the javelin purely for fun when joining his local club, and credits his father, Pádraic, and mother, Pauline, as part of his backroom coaching team, both of whom made the trip to Lima.
Now he’s written his own little chapter into Irish athletics history, and he’s still only starting out.
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