Black Country HammerFest - putting throwers at the middle of the circle

Around the world, innovative competition providers are finding new and exciting ways to showcase their event groups. From pole vaulting in old European stations to the excitement of Night of the 10k PBs at home in London, there are lots of opportunities for athletes to celebrate their event and compete against their rivals.

In recent years at England Athletics, we have been supporting this trend and giving throwers in England and internationally an opportunity to compete, as fans watch on from the track - the inaugural Pickering Throws International and the Winter Long Throws Championships are just two examples. It is however exciting to see local competition providers also putting their athletes first and providing them with a fantastic competitive opportunity on a domestic level.

We recently caught up with Matt Sutton, founder of Black Country HammerFest, to see what has made his competition so successful in the West Midlands.

Noticing an opportunity

After attending a range of different competitions, Matt noticed an opportunity to create a brand-new competition format:

"A lot of young throwers were not enjoying or embracing the competition conditions. Whilst I appreciate these competitions are a high pressure environment, not everyone is an extroverted, natural competitor and the national environment may be worrying or intimidating to athletes. In my opinion, competitors need to learn to enjoy and thrive in competition environment, this is as important as learning technical skills. The desire to perform well in the spotlight should be one of the drivers to motivate athletes to train hard during those cold wet and often lonely training sessions.

"I also noticed there was a lack of well-hosted bespoke, quality competitions for young, up and coming throwers. Often parents were needing to travel miles to enter their child into over-populated competitions where they would not be given their full six throws due to time constraints."

After observing many competitions over the years both locally and internationally, Matt then felt inspired and fuelled ready to start the Black Country HammerFest.

"There are some outstanding meetings in Europe such as Hallesche Werfertage, and it is amazing to see how passionate the organisers are about hammer and throwing in general. They have crowd participation, music, pyrotechnics, food and drink - the main goal is create a party atmosphere which people want to be a part of. We have also placed a large emphasis on how we present our event, using drones and promoting via social media channels. Hammer is a really cool sport and it's important we present it that way!"

Putting the athlete at the heart

At England Athletics, we ensure that the athlete is placed at the heart of everything we do, something which Matt has also adopted at the Black Country HammerFest. As an ex-athlete himself, Matt has competed at a club, national and international level and has experienced lots of different hammer-specific training and competition structures.

"I want to make sure that we can encourage and facilitate the success of our athletes. I appreciate that bigger competitions can have logistical challenges, but I take a step back and ask myself 'why do we do this?' We always put the athlete first - we announce each athlete at the start of their competition, we know their PB’s and achievements, we play their favourite songs on the PA system, we encourage everyone in attendance to get behind them. And as a result over the three events so far we have seen 54 new personal bests set. The final event we hosted was full within 48 hours of opening, and the feedback we've had has been great. I love to see everyone enjoying our events and it has exceeded my expectations."

Advice to other competition providers

It is fantastic to see the Black Country Hammer Fest thriving, but it is also important for other competition providers to be able to learn from Matt's success, and see how they can implement this in their respective events or regions. Matt has some useful tips to help:

"I would advise that you think outside the box as to how you deliver your event. Be bold, be creative, look for inspiration, look at other sports! Is there anything they do that could be applied to your event? Don't be shy in asking for support, reach out to businesses and local authorities, you may be pleasantly surprised. 

"Thirdly, gather support system around you, officials, parents and fellow coaches who are passionate about the sport, engage with them regularly and look after them. Most importantly listen to them! A lot of great ideas have come from parents of athletes I coach! Not everything has to be your idea. You can’t do it alone!"