The British thrower is hoping hard training in Australia will pay dividends at the British Indoor Championships this weekend and beyond in 2026.
Throwers call it “the pit,” a painful period of training where strength gains are made and fatigue is guaranteed. It’s similar to a marathon runner’s base-building period, but with heavy weights instead of running.
Scott Lincoln hit the hole earlier this winter and is in good form ahead of this weekend’s Novuna UK Indoor Championships. Undefeated at a national title in the past decade, he is aiming for his 21st title and should be one of the strong favorites heading into the weekend.
Lincoln’s hard winter work was done in the hot weather of the Australian summer. He moved to Melbourne last winter to team up with trainer Dale Stevenson and this is his second winter Down Under, although he returned to Britain a few days ago to compete in Birmingham.
“Dale’s goal is to prepare us for the majors,” explains Lincoln, referring to the biggest championships of the year. “Major is the key point and we are working around it. It’s all about that one specialty and he prepares us the best for it, and I think he showed that last year in Tokyo. We haven’t worked together for a long time either.”
Lincoln finished eighth in Tokyo, the best finish by a British shooter, male or female, in the history of the world championships. It was a performance that also earned him lottery funding this year.
“The first race I did with Dale, we were in what we call ‘the pit’, a tough phase of training where I was struggling to move,” Lincoln continues. “I remember earlier in the week I threw 17 meters and then he threw it at me that I was competing on Saturday. I managed to throw about 19.90 m during the first competition with him. I thought, what have I done? I moved to the other side of the world and threw 19.90m. But I stuck to it.
“I went to the World Indoors and was a bit disappointed with that (12th place) and then I was heartbroken not to win a medal at the European Indoors (fourth place, two centimeters off the podium).
“I had a few niggles to manage in the outdoor season, but I threw pretty well in Halle. Then I came back to Australia about three or four weeks before the Tokyo Worlds and it was like, ‘Bam! Bam! Bam! Eat now. We will do this raise. Then we will go home. We’ll do this session and then go home.”
“He was telling me things weeks before, like, like, 40 minutes away from the training ground (in Tokyo) and that we have to prepare for that. So I knew everything that was going to happen before I got there, while I think it shocked a lot of people.
Lincoln met Stevenson at a training camp in Loughborough in 2018 and the two stayed in touch. They met again for coffee at the Paris Olympics and Stephenson, who as an athlete himself shot for Australia at London 2012, gave Lincoln an open invitation to come to Australia whenever he wanted.
Lincoln remembers. “I called Daley at the end of the season. I spoke to my coach Paul and left on good terms. And then I accepted Dale’s offer. It was a time of change for me. There were no ill feelings towards Paul. I just wanted something fresh.
“I’ve been with Paul since the beginning and I’m grateful for everything he’s done for me. But I felt like I kept coming to the majors and drowning, and I hate it so much. I just fancied something fresh that gave me back my spark I guess. And that’s what Australia has done.”
Stevenson’s team is made up of a mix of throwers and includes Olympic discus medalist Matt Denny and shot putter Jacko Gill. “It’s a good environment,” Lincoln says. “We all bond with each other so it’s very much like a little family away from home. They are a good group to be around. Lots of banter.”
Lincoln lives just south of Melbourne and has an apartment five minutes from the beach. “There are good people around me,” he says, “I’m very lucky to be there.”
“Recently I went to the Australian Open and the Ashes on Boxing Day. There are some things that need to be done and I mention them. It’s a great place to be.”
But he adds: “Of course I miss my family and there’s something about the Yorkshire countryside that is very close to my heart. The views along the Australian coastline are great, but the view from my bedroom window at home is second to none for me personally and I really love the cold and British winters.
“Melbourne has good weather all the time and it seems ridiculous to complain about it. There’s something humbling about a British winter.”
In 2022, Lincoln won a bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. In two years in Los Angeles, she hopes to compete in her third Olympics. However, the 32-year-old feels something is missing.
“This may sound funny, but I feel like I have nothing to show for my career so far,” he says. “Yes, British titles are good. The medal at the last Commonwealth Games was probably stunning and really beautiful. But I feel like I’ve had a few missed opportunities where I could have had some European medals and I could have pushed for world medal potential. I feel like I still have a lot to give.”
What is the main goal driving him? Commonwealth gold? European medal? Make it to the next Olympics? Breaking the long-standing British record?
“I’d say the British record is the main thing that gets me through the sessions,” says Lincoln. “I want to be Britain’s first 22m thrower.
“Imagine a 30-year-old going out and breaking the British record. That would be very absurd. When I do that, it knocks on the medal door of any major championship. If I can do that in the next year or two, I should be running well before the next Olympics.”
Geoff Capes, who died in 2024 aged 75, held the British record of 21.68m from 1980, but in 2003 Carl Myersko threw an unverified 21.92m. Lincoln, however, would like to extend the record to 22 meters.
“Jeff was good friends with my old coach (Paul Wilson) and I was good friends with him. It’s a shame he’s no longer here, but he’d be the first to congratulate me on breaking the British record. He would be the first on the phone.
“Every time I’d do PBs or whatever he’d say ‘about bloody time.’ He loved to keep you humble.
“Once I threw a PB and qualified directly for the Tokyo Olympics. I was absolutely buzzing and I remember calling him because I knew he wanted to talk to me and for the first 40-50 seconds of the phone call he was cursing and belittling me and telling me not to enjoy myself. But it was a good and humbling experience.
“You need moments like this to keep you grounded. I would love to beat him and become Britain’s first 22m thrower.”
After this weekend’s national champs, Lincoln is aiming for the world indoor championships in Poland, followed by a summer that includes the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, the European champs in Birmingham and, he hopes, breaking the British shooting record.
“Everything is falling into place and I’m excited for the season to really start,” he says.
