We speak to the British hammer champion, who has made great progress this year and plans to take on the world in 2025.
From winning the 2018 World Under-20 Hammer title to a dishearteningly low rate of inconsistency and progress in the rest of his university years, Jake Norris was left questioning his chances.
He had thrown 73.24m in the javelin at the age of 17, but as he moved into his early 20s, there was no reason, rather a series of minor injuries that interrupted his training, but to his dismay was compounded by an inability to meet one’s own heightened expectations.
“I wouldn’t say (winning world gold) put more pressure on outside, but I think I put more pressure on myself, especially in the five years since then,” said the 25-year-old Louisiana State graduate. : “I reached 22, 23 years old and was throwing 71 m. I was saying: “Hey, I was throwing 73m when I was 17,” you think. “Will I ever get better than that?”
Norris returned to the UK in 2022 and under his leadership the late Paul Dickensonregained his confidence and form.
Paul Dickenson (Mark Shearman)
In the whole of 2023, he recorded nine performances, surpassing his previous best, including 74.75m to win his first Great Britain title.In October, he peaked at 76.30m.
If 2023 marked his comeback, 2024 was about building momentum and raising the bar. He started the year with his biggest season opener of 75.07m in February and smashed his personal best of 77.37 in May. In fact, his 10 best throws ever came this year, reinforcing the impact of solid and consistent practice blocks the physical element of ‘growing up’ was also at work, an ongoing process that suggests something yet to be accomplished.
“The way my body developed, I wasn’t very strong as a pre-20, in fact I think my technique got me through the age groups because I figured it out pretty early on, and I’m not even particularly strong against the other throwers over, so there’s a good chance I won’t hit my peak until I’m 30,” she says.
“If you look around the world, other than Katzberg (Canada’s 22-year-old Olympic champion Ethan Katzberg), nobody has done what he has done.
“You’ve got guys like Nowicki (Poland 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, finishing 10th at the European Championships in June (his UK and Northern Ireland debut) and then winning his second consecutive British title later that month, opening the door to a chance to represent the Great Britain team at the Olympics.
He ultimately missed Paris despite being awarded a World Athletics place based on ranking points, due to falling short of the UK Athletics qualifying standard (77.50m), but he bounced back in London with National Athletics League (NAL) wins (76.71m ): Birmingham showed exceptional character (76.93 m).
“I’m still angry about it,” he says of not being selected for the Olympics. compared to the world rankings of athletes.) It didn’t make sense to me. I was saying: “You certainly see a disparity between me and any other event,” but I was told that if I wanted to challenge the standard, I would have to do so when the selection policy was first published.
With the prospect of competing at the 2025 world championships in Tokyo, Norris, who has been added to Great Britain’s Olympic world-class program in 2024/25 but is also holding down three different part-time jobs, is focused on the 78.20m standard and making the choice.
“We want that standard so they can’t say no,” he says. I have improved.”
Jake Norris (Mark Shearman)
If you could choose one person to train/compete with, past or present, who would it be and why?
Anatoly Bondarchuk (1972 Olympic champion). He’s the best two hammer thrower coach of all time, he also helped Ethan Katzberg and I just wanted to tap into his knowledge.
» This feature first appeared in the December issue of AW magazine. Subscribe to AW Magazine herecheck out our new podcast! here or subscribe to our digital archive of back issues from 1945 to the present day here
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