We speak to the British hammer champion who made big progress this year and plans to take on the world in 2025
From the high of winning the 2018 world under-20 hammer title to the discouraging low of inconsistency and lack of progress during the remainder of his university years, Jake Norris was left doubting his own potential.
He’d thrown 73.24m with the senior weight implement as a 17-year-old but, as he moved into his early 20s, he failed to hit the same standards. There was no single reason – rather a series of minor injuries that interrupted training – but his frustration was compounded by an inability to meet his own raised expectations.
“I wouldn’t say [winning world gold] resulted in more pressure from the outside, but I think I put more pressure on myself, especially in the five years after it,” says the 25-year-old Louisiana State graduate. “I got to the age of 22, 23 and I was throwing 71m. I was like: ‘Come on, I was throwing 73m when I was 17!’ You think: ‘Am I ever going to get better than that?’”
Norris returned to the UK in 2022 and, under the guidance of the late Paul Dickenson, rediscovered his confidence and form.
Paul Dickenson (Mark Shearman)
Throughout 2023 he recorded nine performances in excess of his previous best, including 74.75m to win his first senior UK title. He peaked with 76.30m in October.
If 2023 marked his comeback, 2024 was about building momentum and raising the bar. He began this year with his biggest ever season-opener – 75.07m – in February and destroyed his personal best with a competition-winning 77.37m in the Czech Republic in May. In fact, his top 10 best ever throws came this year, reinforcing the impact of solid and consistent training blocks. The physical element of “growing into” the hammer was also at play, an on-going process that hints at potential still to be realised.
“The way my body was developing, I wasn’t very strong as an under-20 – I actually think my technique carried me through the age groups because I got the hang of it pretty well, pretty early – and I’m not even particularly strong now in relation to other throwers, so there’s a good chance I won’t hit my peak until I’m about 30,” he says.
“If you look around the world, other than Katzberg [Canada’s 22-year-old Olympic champion Ethan Katzberg] no one else has done what he’s done.
“You’ve got guys like Nowicki [Polish 2021 Olympic champion Wojciech Nowicki], he’s 35 and he was 32 when he set his PB, so I’ve still got time.”
Jake Norris (Getty)
Norris’ good form continued into the summer. He finished 10th in the European Championships in June (his senior debut for Great Britain and Northern Ireland), then won his second successive British title later that month which opened the door to the possibility of representing Team GB at the Olympic Games.
He ultimately missed out on Paris – despite receiving a World Athletics spot based on rankings points – due to falling short of the UK Athletics qualification standard (77.50m), but to bounce back with National Athletics League (NAL) victories in London (76.71m) and Birmingham (76.93m) showed exceptional character.
“I’m still annoyed about it,” he says of his Olympic non-selection. “I understand why there are selection standards, but for the men’s hammer especially I felt like I was able to prove that the standard was too high [relative to other events and athletes’ world rankings]. It didn’t make sense to me. I was like, ‘Surely you can see there is a disparity between my event and every other event?’ but I was told that if I’d wanted to challenge the standard I’d have had to do it when the selection policy was first released.”
With the prospect of going to the 2025 World Championships in Tokyo, Norris, who was added to UK Athletics Olympic World Class Programme for 2024/25 but also juggles three different part-time jobs, is focused on the standard of 78.20m and making selection clear-cut.
“We want that A standard so that they can’t say no,” he says. “I want to compete more against the guys at the top of the world rankings and that’s the level of competition I need to be up against if I’m going to improve.”
Jake Norris (Mark Shearman)
If you could choose one person to train/compete with, past or present, who would it be and why?
Anatoliy Bondarchuk [1972 Olympic champion]. He’s the coach of the top two hammer throwers of all time, he’s also helped Ethan Katzberg, and I’d just like to tap into his knowledge.
» This feature first appeared in the December issue of AW magazine. Subscribe to AW magazine here, check out our new podcast here or sign up to our digital archive of back issues from 1945 to the present day here
The post Jake Norris: “We want that A standard so UK Athletics can’t say no” appeared first on AW.