Jess Mayho’s European Championships mission to Munich is first step on road to Paris Olympics

Leeds hammer thrower Jess Mayho flies to Munich today to contest the biggest major championships of her career, confident the work she has done altering her technique over the last few months will see her last the distance in pursuit of her Olympic dream.

Her sport has already had a world championships and a Commonwealth Games in the last month alone, both events she came close to qualifying for, only for circumstances out of her control forcing her to wait.

She also took the decision in the winter to tweak her technique, which has taken time to bed in but will ultimately lead to greater consistency.

Mayho’s patience, and a greater understanding of the long game, has been rewarded with selection for the European Championships, for her the first step on the road to Paris.

“The worlds was within my grasp this year, but we’ve made a massive technical change over the winter and it’s not quite come to fruition yet this season,” Mayho, who narrowly missed out on qualifying for the world championships, told The Yorkshire Post.

“For the Commonwealths I threw the qualifying mark 25 times but I just wasn’t the top of the UK rankings this year, that’s sport, I get that.

“The standard of women’s hammer throwing this year has gone through the roof and that’s brilliant for the sport in the UK.

“Hopefully it’s inspiring the next generation coming through, but it has made everything a bit more competitive.

“But if someone had have said at the start of the year you’d get close to the worlds, you’d throw the Commonwealth standard and get picked for the Europeans, then cool, I’d have taken that.”

That is due to the technical changes she made, and the understanding that the bedding in process takes time.

“Last year although I had some really good distances and threw a number of PBs, I was fouling quite a lot of my throws because I was taking up too much of the circle. I was going off a heel turn at the start, whereas now I’m going off on a toe turn and that’s really helped, it’s given me bags of room in the circle but it’s just not quite connected yet,” explains the 29-year-old. “I say yet because I still believe there’s time this season to show the shape that I’m in.

“That’s the maturity of me as an athlete now, knowing that it’s not a quick fix and I’ll not see the results straight away.

“It’s something I’ve got to have patience for, we’ve got two years to Paris with another world championships next year.

“So going to the Europeans this year is really good experience and then hopefully the worlds next year and then onto Paris in 2024. That’s the long-term aim.”

Mayho heads to Munich in good shape, physically and mentally. She is on the British Athletics funding ladder after years of scraping by thanks to family and sponsors.

She still works at Leeds University, but also now splits her time with days spent at her training base in Loughborough.

“There’s been a lot of growth this season,” says Mayho, who contests the qualifying round on Tuesday with the final the following day.

Despite the changes, the results have been good. She went into the British Championships – which she won in 2019 and 2020 – ranked sixth but fought her way up to second, and then at a continental event, started ninth but again got a silver.

“I’ve already shown some Yorkshire grit this year,” says Mayho, who pulled her back the day before the national championships but fought on.

“When you get to a champs anything can happen, it’s all to play.

“You work so hard, I’ve had quite a lot disappointment, and it’s been challenging, but it makes the moments when you get the selection call and the process of then building into a major championships like the Europeans, so much more enjoyable.”