I arrived in Europe last week. I spent the first few days in Bern, Switzerland with my friend and teammate Roland Widmer. Luckily, I was able to adjust to the time zone change with relatively little jet lag. I traveled to Istanbul, Turkey for my first competition last Saturday.
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I received a phone call on Thursday from KIRO radio reporter Erin Covey. KIRO is putting together some stories on graduating students that are doing interesting work. They selected me for one of their stories and it will air shortly. The report was brief, but Ms. Covey was great to talk with. One thing I would like to add to the report is that I will be moving to Kamloops, British Columbia in a few months to train full-time with the world’s best hammer throw coach. I hope this experience will help me make the Olympics some day. The move will be costly and if you can help in any way, please contact me. Any support would help me reach my goal of being an Olympian.
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I turned in my last paper law school paper today. It was a rewarding feeling to hand in my last assignment as a law student. While I am not officially done with school (I still have to complete a trial tomorrow for my internship), all of my classwork has been completed. I received my diploma on Sunday and will be fleeing the country immediately to participate in the European Cup for Switzerland. Leading up to the meet, training hasn’t been going as well as I had expected. However, with school out of the way, things should be smoother now. It is such a relief. Now the only thing between me and my law license is the bar exam.
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Well, to put it succinctly, I had a disappointing competition on Saturday. When I arrived on Friday afternoon, I did a short workout to wake my legs up after the flight and had some of the best throws of my life. On Saturday, things continued to feel good, but the results did not come and I only threw 64.44 meters. I still don’t know exactly what happened, but I’m trying to put the competition behind me and look forward to the rest of the season. The complete results for the meet can be found here. On the brighter side, my training partner Jennifer Joyce threw a new personal best of 69.84 meters at a meet in the Ukraine. Sultana Frizell also threw the Olympic standard for the second time, helping her finally meet Canada’s stringent qualifying standards. Read more
I just returned from the UW Law School Alumni Dinner where I had the pleasure of dining with D. Wayne Gittinger and his wife Anne. Both have been gracious enough to give me a generous scholarship this year. Without the scholarship, I am not sure I would be able to take time off next year to focus on my training. I just wanted to take a moment to thank them once again.
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The past few weeks have also been good for my training partners up in Kamloops. Sultana Frizell took second place at the Mt. SAC relays and set a new Canadian record of 69.37m (227-07). At just 23 years old, she has a great career ahead of her. Another good friend, Michael Letterlough, has set two national records in the past two weeks for his native Cayman Islands. On Saturday, Mike extended his personal best of 60.66m (199-00) at the Kamloops Spring Throws Competition. You can view video of that throw here. Read more
After having a great week of training in the Arizona Sun, I competed at the Mt. SAC Relays this past Sunday. Things went well, but not quite as expected. At the end of my last practice before the competition, I fell and hurt my rib. The pain was minimal, but enough to throw off my rhythm. As the winner opened the competition with a world leading mark, I was struggling to make the finals. I luckily ended with a respectable mark of 65.32m (214-04), but am eager to compete at full strength so that I can continue what I think will be a great season. After returning to Seattle, I was happy to find out from my doctor that my rib is only severely bruised, and not broken. The pain should subside in the next three weeks, and in the meantime, I have adjusted my competition schedule for the coming weeks. Read more
As the temperatures climbed to the mid-70s in Seattle yesterday, I started my season at the PLU Invitational. In front of a strong showing of friends and family, I threw 66.47m (218’1″) to place second behind my friend Adam Midles. I was somewhat surprised and very happy with this result. I’ve only had one meet better than this in my career, and that was last year’s NCAA Championships. My mark was also much further than my first competition last season (to see how this compares to last season, you can look at my results). To make things even better, I was very consistent. I had two throws over 216 feet and another two over 214 feet.
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I guess all I needed was a fresh start. With a new quarter of school underway, things seems to be going great. I have a great schedule of classes with some strong professors. I also am lucky enough to get some practical experience working as an extern for the IRS Office of Chief Counsel’s Seattle office. The internship has been an informative and exciting experience so far. I have previously worked representing taxpayers, and it is interesting to see how the other side handles each case.
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When I started law school, I had just one goal: to try to be successful both academically and athletically. I met this goal. I have been successful at both, and rarely did one come in the way of the either. But recently, things have changed a little. We just finished another quarter of law school a few weeks ago in which I had a 20-credit course load and had four three-hour exams on consecutive days. Needless to say, both the amount of time I spent training and the amount of time I spent sleeping declined near the end of the last quarter. As a result, my training results hit a speed bump. However, I am still optimistic about this season. While some people travel to Mexico for spring break, I drove up to Kamloops and spent the week training hard with my coach and was able to make up for lost time. My first competition of the season is rapidly approaching, so I’ll soon be able to see the results of my off-season training. Read more
