Newbury's Charlotte Payne full of positivity after third place finish at Loughborough International

NEWBURY hammer thrower Charlotte Payne is already looking for progression after an impressive third place finish at the Loughborough International last month.

Every single one of her throws were over 61m and she was close to breaking her own personal record.

Despite not managing to do this, Payne has explained how happy she was with her performance in the competition.

“Although I was just under my personal best, I am pleased with the consistency that I have showed so far this year.

“Now I know that I can comfortably throw 63m, I feel like there is a lot of potential to progress beyond my personal best.

“I was pleased with the third place finish as it was a senior competition and the two competitors that threw further are 10 years older than me.”

Like many other athletes, the pandemic has hit hard and it’s been challenging to keep the momentum high.

Payne explained how she is using this to her advantage and how it’s spurring her on to become even better.

“The pandemic and lockdowns have changed my whole mind-set to competing,” admitted Payne. “As so many of our competitions were cancelled last year, I have

been so excited to compete this year that I have had very few nerves.

“It has almost forced me to reset and enjoy competing rather than worrying about what could go wrong.

“I always throw better when I am in a positive mind-set as I have more self-belief and confidence in what I’m doing and therefore I am going to keep that excited for the remainder of my season.

“Competing every summer has been a huge part of my life for so many years and when that was taken away last like, like many other athletes, I found it difficult as there was nothing to work for, but I persevered and am now seeing the benefits.”

Now that her season is well underway, she is targeting more appearances in competitions this year – with the European U20 Championships in Tallinn, Estonia, fast approaching.

“I have already thrown the qualifying standard several times this year, so as long as I keep my standard up then hopefully I will be selected.

“This year I am also aiming to throw the U20 British record, which has been held by Sophie Hitchon – a bronze medal Olympian.

“If I break the British record, I will also meet the commonwealth games qualifying standard in the process which is another one of my goals.”