Broughton hammer-throwing star Kimberley Reed has had a turbulent year on and off the athletics field.
Here, father Scott Reed describes the ups, downs, nears and fars which nevertheless saw her finishing the competitive season last month with high hopes of achieving a Commonwealth Games spot in 2014.
Kimberley’s 2012/2013 winter training didn’t go well.
She left school and went to Edinburgh University in September 2012 to study Developmental and Cell Biology, and I think she found it difficult to fit in the necessary amount of training to prepare for the 2013 season.
After going to Portugal for warm weather training in April, her first mark of the season was a rather poor 51.23m at the Lothian trials at Meadowbank Stadium (her 2012 personal best had been 56.41 metres).
Sadly, Kimberley's coach Alan Bertram had become terminally ill with cancer (he died in May), and she had to train on her own. Her performances soon got worse: 49.51m at the Scottish University Championships to finish second, 49.91 metres at the Scottish Women’s League at Meadowbank. A distance of 48.91 metres at Hammerama would be her worst of the season.
It was at this point that she asked me to take over her coaching again, and we soon devised a training plan for the summer to try and get her back into contention for a Commonwealth Games place at Glasgow 2014. This boiled down to restarting winter training for 2 months and involved some sessions throwing a large quantity of heavy hammers. We allowed a window to compete at the English Under-20 Championships in June, but apart from that the training would be very intensive, targeting the Scottish Senior Championships in August.
Improvements
By 8 June things had begun to improve, with a respectable 53.29m guesting at the UK Women’s League at Meadowbank. Kimberley was still ranked only third for Edinburgh Athletics Club. and was only given just three throws as a guest. However, she still managed to outperform Edinburgh’s second-ranked thrower on the day.
At the English Under-20 Championships on 13 June we were expecting maybe 55m, but windy conditions made the competition very poor and only a metre divided the top three competitors going into the last round. Kimberley was to pick up bronze (finishing with 52.66m), losing to the 2011 World Youth Champion Louisa James.
By 15 July we had stopped the full-on heavy training and begun focusing more on speed. This paid dividends when Kimberley threw 55.97m at the third Hammerama of the season at Livingston on 20 July, her third longest throw ever.
At the UK Women’s League Final in London on 3 August, Kimberley was now Edinburgh’s second-ranked thrower but was forced to step up to first string when Susan McKelvie became injured and couldn’t compete. Kimberley threw her first personal best for over a year to finish fourth, and this was to prove crucial as Edinburgh won the league for the first time since 2006 by a margin of only 4.5 points.
The following week at Scotstoun Stadium, Glasgow was the Scottish Senior Championships. This was to be the big showdown of Scotland’s top four women, who are competing for only three places at Glasgow 2014. Kimberley’s rivals on the day were: Susan McKelvie (season’s best of 62.65m), who has been undefeated by any Scottish athlete for six years; the fast improving Rachel Hunter, with a season’s best of 60.91m; and Myra Perkins, who has a PB of 61.94m and a season’s best of 58.42m.
Kimberley was to finish second, winning the silver medal with a personal-best throw of 58.99m, losing to Susan Mckelvie’s 59.61m. Kimberley was actually winning after the fourth round, eventually being beaten into second with a single throw.
At the following week’s Scottish Under-20 Championships in Aberdeen on 18 August, we were expecting even more, but Kimberley succumbed to a virus after weeks of intensive training. On the day of the championships she was physically sick but still managed to throw a respectable 57.61m to win comfortably by a margin of 10m. She then had to rest for 10 days in order to shake off the virus.
By the weekend of 7/8 September she had fully recovered, throwing 57.77m on the Saturday to finish top in the Scottish Hammer Grand Prix at both Under-20 and Senior levels. She then caught the bus to travel down to Birmingham to compete with Edinburgh’s junior athletic team. Kimberley was to win the hammer with an outstanding personal best of 59.69m, not only beating her main British rival and previous World Under-18 champion Louisa James, but also picking up the Norma Blaine award for Overall Best Performance and athlete of the match as Team Edinburgh finished runners-up.
She now goes into winter training only 1.31m away from the Scottish Commonwealth Games Standard of 61m. As I said earlier, there are four women chasing only three places on the team for Glasgow 2014, but Kimberley now has the confidence to fight for her place and hopefully by the first competition in April next year she will start showing her true potential. She is now ranked 20th in the world at Under-20 and top 10 in the UK.