Jamaican hammer thrower Nayoka Clunis set a new national record with a 71.83m throw at the USATF Throws Festival at the University of Arizona on Saturday.

Clunis, who represented Jamaica at last year’s World Championships in Budapest, broke the previous national record of 71.48m set back in 2016 by Daina Levy.

The 28-year-old started her series on Saturday with a 69.51m effort in the first round before producing 71.13m, 70.01m, 70.20m and 70.38m in the next four rounds.

She then uncorked her national record-breaking throw in the sixth and final round, finishing sixth overall in the competition.

Her best throw prior to Saturday was 71.18m done in Canada last year.

American Brooke Andersen threw 79.92m to win and was followed by China’s Jie Zhao (74.10m) and American Annette Echikunwoke (73.80m).

Elsewhere, 2019 World Championship silver medallist Danniel Thomas-Dodd threw 18.87m to win the women’s shot put ahead of Americans Adelaide Aquilla (18.47m) and Jessica Ramsey (18.34m).

Rajindra Campbell threw 21.69m for second in the men’s equivalent behind American Payton Otterdahl (22.41m). Mexico’s Uziel Munoz threw 21.68m for third.

The men’s discus throw saw 2019 World Championship runner-up Fedrick Dacres produce 64.07m for third behind the American pair Reggie Jagers (64.25m) and Joseph Brown (64.57m).

Difficulty in getting sponsorship, use of inferior equipment and poor coverage are some of the problems faced by the local throwing community according to renowned coach Michael Vassell.

In light of recent comments by national hammer throw champion Nayoka Clunis regarding a lack of financial support from the local track & field governing bodies, attempts were made to contact a number of Jamaica’s throws athletes and coaches to see whether or not they have had similar experiences.

For context, these were Clunis’ comments on social media two weeks ago.

“Nobody wants to talk about the lack of funding or sponsorship that track and field gets. If you’re not ranked in the top 5, people don’t take you seriously. I am ranked in the top 30 (27 to be exact), while some countries would jump at the opportunity to help develop my talent…. not mine. They don’t help with anything outside of airfare and stay at national representative meets. Yes, I’ve been pleading for assistance from JAAA, JOA, even the minister, and no one is willing to help! How are athletes to survive!? It cost me $120 for a massage and $150 for chiro and I can only afford one, once a month! So, when you all see athletes like me not getting to that next level or not performing up to standard it’s because we are not getting the help we need to be great. I’m not asking for the world I’m asking for the basics to survive, that’s it!”

The 28-year-old represented Jamaica in the hammer throw at the World Championships in Budapest in August, failing to advance from qualifying with a best throw of 58.10m, a far cry from the 70.17m effort she produced at the National Championships just a month earlier. 

SportsMax.tv reached out to a number of other athletes and coaches looking for opinions on various issues faced by field event athletes in Jamaica and, while a number of them declined to comment, coach Vassell obliged and shed some light on some important topics centered around the Jamaican throwing community.

The first issue Vassell brought up was difficulty in getting sponsorship for his Throws Only meet.

“We have a preference for track in Jamaica. We believe in track and we love track. I have a Throws Only meet which has gotten to the point now where we have been doing this for 20 years and it has shown to benefit Jamaica in where we have produced medalists at the world level and all of these people are what you would call alumni out of these throws meets,” he told SportsMax.tv.

“We can say it has an impact but, having been around for 20 years, it is still a struggle to find sponsors for the meet, a meet that is used by coaches and schools to test their athletes. It is still a struggle to get sponsors,” he added.

The current Girls head coach at Excelsior High School also brought up the issue of the lack of access to top-class equipment due to high costs.

“Track & Field throwing depends on implements. You need proper implements to throw. Where do you get these implements? Are they world class? A training javelin will cost you US$200. A real good javelin can cost you US$3000,” he said.

“These things are what you call cost prohibitive. It also means that even the suppliers in Jamaica like Carl Chang at Western Sports who has been really supportive of throwing events, he buys implements but again, because of the cost, he can’t buy top of the line implements because if he does nobody can afford to buy them,” Vassell added.

The question was then asked regarding whether or not a possible solution would be for the local track & field governing bodies to provide top-class equipment for the athletes to have access to year-round.

“The governing body provides implements for competition,” Vassell said.

“They ensure that there is world-class competition equipment available to use. That, in most cases, is the extent of their support because they tell you that, while they’re in charge of that, there role is not to develop the sport like that to provide implements,” he added.

He went on to say that while some athletes may have sponsorships and be provided with world-class equipment free of cost, lesser athletes mostly have to rely on athletes or coaches coming from overseas.

“Some of the lesser athletes are dependent on maybe some of the guys coming from college overseas might leave an implement or some of the coaches from foreign might come down and leave two implements for the kids because to get good quality implements is expensive!” he said.

Vassell also noted that the use of the lesser quality equipment has a direct effect on some of the performances we see from Jamaica throwers at big meets around the world.

“Jamaica being what it is, if I buy a US$3000 javelin and throw it and it hits the ground and breaks in two, where does that leave me? Nobody really wants to make that kind of investment. You can get away and buy some javelins for $300 and use them but when your throwers go to the international meets and are exposed to world-class high-level implements, then they don’t perform as they can because they’re not used to them,” he said.

“A javelin is weighted to fly a certain distance whether that’s 60, 70, 80 or 90 metres. A 70m javelin thrower cannot take up an 80m javelin and throw it 80m because the strain that it puts on his elbow and his throwing arm is totally different from what the 70m javelin does,” he added.

When brainstorming possible solutions to this lack of access, Vassell circled back to the first problem, getting more sponsorship.

“We’re trying our best to navigate these challenges. You find sponsors. I remember Mr. Chang from Western Sports sponsored me for one of my throwing meets and he gave me some implements. These implements were used as prizes. So, people won an event and got an implement as the prize,” he said.

Vassell also addressed the way field events in general are covered at televised track meets.

“The purists will love the field events because they are exciting. They have rounds; they have lead changes; they have one man starting out in the front and ending up fifth; you have one man leading with one round to go and ending up fourth; you have people moving from eighth to first in one round but, because of how it is shown, it’s not exciting for a lot of people because you don’t see these lead changes,” he said.

“When it’s on the TV they’re showing the 100m because nobody has the time to show the discus that is also happening where the lead changed four times in the last round,” he added.

He also made reference to his throws only meets.

“When we have our throwing events, we have people qualifying for Olympics and World Championships and throwing world leads. When the seniors are throwing, everybody is watching. Everything is on pause and they are the stars of the show but, because a lot of people don’t know about it, they just push it by the wayside.”

Vassell says his dream is to one day put on a shot-put competition in the Half-Way-Tree square in Kingston as a way to draw more public attention to field events

“One of the things that Diamond League organizers do, for instance, is they’ll have the shot put the Friday evening like in the middle of a square or something like that. I’ve had this idea in my head all along to have a shot-put competition in the middle of Half-Way-Tree,” he said.

“Again now, we’d have to get sponsors because if you want to make that exciting you’d have to have world-class shot putters so you’d have to have prize money. You get like three of the top throwers out of North America, two good sponsors. Give the winners US$5000 or $6000 as a prize and who knows, they might come,” he added.

To throw as far as you can, is a simple concept, but there is something beautiful about the moment when hard work fuelled by stubborn determination, and just the mere need to rise above challenges, combine to create a seemingly effortless mark.

Such is the case of Jamaica’s hammer thrower Nayoka Clunis, who charted and has now completed the first phase of her course towards top level competition, as she not only achieved a personal best mark of 71.18 metres along the way but will be the first –male or female –to represent the island in the discipline at the upcoming World Athletics Championships.

In fact, just making the country’s team to Budapest, is testament of Clunis’s growth and unwavering desire to make it big to honour her now deceased mother Michelle Morgan and Grandmother Letta Black, both of whom serve as the reason why she continues to smile in the face of adversities.

“They are my main motivation. Seeing how these two women made things happen in their lives, despite the difficulties they faced with little help, really gave me the will I need to overcome all the challenges I’ve faced,” Clunis told Sportsmax.tv.

Those challenges the now 27-year-old refers to are those that came with living in a fairly unsafe space, and so she sought solace in sports, netball in particular, which she declared was her first love.

“I got into track and field because my life wasn’t in the greatest place and my netball coach thought it would be a good idea to get me away from home and stay safe even for a few hours. Netball was my first love. I remember my mom playing netball and after she passed away, I did everything I could to follow in her footsteps, but things just didn’t work out where that is concerned,” she shared.

So started her journey in track and field where she tried her hand and feet at various disciplines to include the sprints, before injury forced her to take up javelin, shot put, discus and later heptathlon, before she inevitably finding her niche –hammer throw.

In a discipline which arguably favours power and technique over passion, it wasn’t necessarily easy for Clunis, as her best throw back in 2016 was marked at 50.23m, but she eventually found her footing and now seven years later, she breached 71m, not once, but three times in quick succession.

The first was 71.13m in Idaho, with the second coming on July 14, when she hit her new lifetime best of 71.18m and two days later, Clunis, a four-time National champion, launched the instrument to 71.11m. All marks were achieved at separate meets, mere weeks after Clunis claimed another Jamaica title with a 70.17m throw.

“As everything in life, change is challenging. Specializing is challenging, but I always knew I’m destined for more and even though I am not yet at the point in my life where I want to be, I’m satisfied with where I am at and I remain hungry to see how much more I can give,” Clunis said.

“Making a career, however, has been extremely difficult because throwers don’t get paid compared to other events. So, the journey has been difficult but I’m hoping it will get easier with sponsorship,” she noted.

Still, there remains a willingness to succeed and a sense that the mood, and, by extension, Clunis’s attitude has changed for the better in recent years.

Clunis believes her lifetime best throw was long overdue and was accomplished due to the exact combination of her biomechanics, physical attributes and excellent technique.

“I am pleased and grateful that I’ve gotten to the point of my career where I’m able to throw lifetime bests, but there’s more there and, like I said, I’m hungry. This tells me the consistency is important and a big throw is coming.  This tells me that I’m becoming the athlete I’ve always dreamt of being, and so I am working on myself one day at a time,” she said.

The frightening sense of determination in Clunis’s tone is very much understandable, given the fact that she has improved leaps and bounds over the past year, and it has given her a new-found confidence and perspective on what is possible.

“Qualifying for the Olympic Games would be amazing and not being able to do so yet is my motivation over the season. I believe next year is going to be great, I am just focusing on the little things that I need to do in order to achieve the Automatic Qualifying standard, as it would be honestly amazing to hit 74m.

“I just want to catapult my self-belief in a whole different league. Throwing 71m so consistently this season has been a dream and I want more so I’m patiently working until the marks come,” the bubbly athlete revealed.

“For now, my main goals at this point are to gain sponsorship leading to the Olympic Games because I would like to focus on training…like really get the opportunity to focus on training and see how great I can be with help,” she ended.

Jamaica’s Nayoka Clunis threw a personal best 71.18m to finish second in the women’s hammer throw at the 2023 Harry Jerome Track Classic in Langley, Canada on Friday.

Clunis, who won her fourth Jamaican hammer throw title last week, entered the meet with a personal best of 71.13m done in June. She is getting ever so close to the automatic World Championship qualifying distance of 73.60m.

On Friday, the 27-year-old was beaten by Canadian World Championships silver medalist and Commonwealth champion, Camryn Rodgers, who threw 76.12m while the USA’s Jill Shippee threw 70,83m for third.

Clunis’ countrywoman and this year’s silver medalist at the CAC Games, Erica Belvit, was fourth with 68.90m.

Elsewhere, Lloydricia Cameron threw 17.14m for second in the shot put behind Canadian Commonwealth champion, Sarah Mitton’s 19.83m. The USA’s Rachel Fatherly was third with 17.02m.

On the track, Adidas’ Shane Brathwaite ran 13.65 for second in the men’s 110m hurdles behind CYG Elite’s Louis Rollins (13.60). Jackson Cheung was third in 14.20.

Bahamian Shakeel Hall-Smith ran 49.25 to win the men’s 400m hurdles ahead of Roxroy Cato (50.02) and Justin Rose (51.51).