The end of June was one of mixed fortunes for Scotland’s No.1 hammer thrower, Mark Dry. On the final weekend of the month, he was celebrating success at the final trials and his subsequent selection for the Great Britain and Ireland team for forthcoming the European Under-23 Championships in Lithuania.  Two days later and his place was in doubt after he suffered an injury in training. 

But Mark is one determined youngster and he insists that nothing will stop him from wearing his international vest with pride in Kaunas from July 16-19. After all, compared to the hardship of training on an old airport runway, a few sore ribs won’t knock him off his stride. 

Dry, from Burghead on the Morayshire coast, had a strange introduction to the art of hammer throwing. “I was in the army cadets and was a pretty decent javelin thrower,” he explained. “Then I went to Elgin Athletics’ Club and they didn’t have any javelins. So the coach suggested I try the hammer.”

That was a few years ago and the next big turning point in his athletics’ career came 18 months ago when he teamed up with coach, Chris Black, the two-time Scottish Olympian.  “I was throwing 57m when I started with Chris late in 2007 and now my personal best is 69.40, “ continued the 21-year-old. “He has been a huge influence.”

Black has been a dedicated Scottish coach for many years. His best throw was 73.18m when he finished a fantastic seventh at the 1976 Olympic Game sin Montreal. Bu for both coach and athletes it is the lack of facilities in Scotland that always casts a dark shadow.

With Edinburgh’s Meadowbank out of commission, Dry describes his practice area as “ a strip of concrete outside the back of Edinburgh airport.”

It hardly sounds ideal, and he agrees. ‘It’s certainly nothing like what we have in competition. It’s pretty bad. There are quite a group of us in the sport, and it would be so much better if we had somewhere decent to train. But things are looking up because they are refurbishing Scotstoun and we should be able to start training there later this year.’”

Having facilities close to home will be even better for Dry as he currently lives in Glasgow and pays for his sport by working as a store man at the city’s Royal infirmary. 

However, the lack of perfection during the long days polishing his technique has not dulled Dry’s ambition. The Under-23 cap is a big breakthrough and another July goal is to do well at the British Championship and qualify for the world championships try and qualify for the world championships in Berlin in August.

Then there is next year. “I’ve already posted the qualifying distance for the 2010 Commonwealth games so that should be great and then my main focus is the 2012 Olympics in London. And I definitely want to be at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. Competing at home will be perfect.”

But if the future looks rosy, his most immediate concern was getting ready for Lithuania. “It was diagnosed as torn cartilage in my ribs and it is painful. I’ll be all right, but I had hoped to put in a good couple of weeks of training so it is frustrating.

”But I’ll still be trying to do my best at the Europeans. I’m improving all the time and the future is very exciting.”

And once he has better training circle at Scotstoun, then who knows how far he can throw? 

EB
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