Gillespie breaks his national record

On Saturday, competition at Swindon signified the beginning of the winter throws season.

And despite a hard frost at the track and snow on the surrounding hills, Wragby resident Gillespie was in top form.

“I was taking part in a heavy throws triathlon, which comprises the hammer, shot and heavyweight hammer,” said the thrower who competes for Ireland.

“Last year I set a new Irish record in this event with 1205 points.”

Gillespie started this weekend’s event with a 23.61m hammer throwwhich he said he was ‘really pleased’ with.

Next up came the shot, where an 8.24m effort kept him in with a chance of breaking his record.

Gillespie added: “The final event, the heavy hammer, really did it for me as I smashed my Irish record in this event with 10.18m, an improvement on my previous record by 26cm.

“This then gave me enough points to also obliterate my triathlon record by over 50 points with a final total of 1258 points.

“This is a fantastic start to the winter, and with quite a few months of slog ahead of me yet, it’s great for the motivation.”