Joyce’s javelin journey continues

JERUSALEM is one of the most famous cities in the world, for obvious reasons, and requires very little introduction as a site of historical and cultural significance.
It’s also the venue this week for the European Under-20 track and field athletic championships, where one Mayo teenager is hoping to make his mark.
Oisin Joyce from Ballinrobe is 18 years-old and a member of Lake District Athletics Club.
He’s also one of the best javelin throwers in the country.
Oisin currently holds the Irish Post-Primary School and Irish Under-19 titles, and broke the previous record in both competitions in the process of winning them.
A few weeks ago he returned from Morton Stadium in Dublin as the new Irish senior champion, throwing a Personal Best of 70.56m to beat all comers.
Last Thursday he flew out to Jerusalem to take on the best of the best in Europe.
“This is definitely the biggest competition that I’ve ever taken part in,” he told The Mayo News before he left Ireland. “But I can’t wait, I’m looking at it as an opportunity.
“I’ve got nothing to lose.
“I’d be quite a relaxed person,” he added. “Sure, I’d be nervous before a big competition but I’d channel the nerves. Like, what’s the worst that could happen? If you lose, you lose.”
Oisin himself reckons he was ‘seven or eight’ when he first starting throwing the turbo javelin. “I liked throwing stones at my brother,” he laughed, ‘so the javelin seemed like a natural progression really.”
Fast forward ten years and, along with his club-mate Conor Cusack (‘I’ve learned an awful lot from Conor along the way’), Joyce is fast becoming a household name in Irish athletics circles.
We enquire what it takes to be a top-class javelin thrower?
“I think I’ve got decent speed on the runway, a pretty good wing-span, good flexibility and my technique isn’t bad,” he replied.
“I also word hard. I train six days a week between gym sessions, speed sessions on the track, yoga and throwing sessions. I’ll usually take Sunday off, but I’ll still get out, I’m not a hermit,” he smiles, confirming that an odd pint of Guinness ‘does no harm’.
But it’s obvious that he credits a huge amount of success to ‘the tight team’ of people he has around him.
His father, Padraic, is his coach; his mother, Pauline and sister Aisling (a successful middle-distance runner in her own right) are his speed coaches; while Galway-based Dave Fitzpatrick is his S&C coach.
Oisin also mentions that his mother doubles up as his ‘nutritionist’.
“I’ve a great team around me, they are a huge help to me. I do a lot of work on my technique as well with a coach based in Portugal so we all work together.”
Oisin is also a very talented Gaelic footballer, but has opted out of playing with Ballinrobe this summer in order to concentrate on throwing the javelin.
He’s currently waiting on CAO offers for college but has scholarship offers on the table in both Dublin and Limerick.
“I’d like to study psychology, but I’m not sure yet where I’ll be going to college,” he says.
You wonder if it bothers him that athletics doesn’t get the same coverage as some of the more mainstream sports or generate the same headlines.
“It’s not something that would bother me, to be honest,” he muses.
“I do it for my own satisfaction, I do it for myself,” adding that the ‘most satisfaction’ he got from any achievement so far was representing Ireland.
“I came third in an international competition in Mannheim in Germany,” he recalls.
“I’m very proud of my country and that was a great honour. That was a goosebumps moment.
“I always think it’s more exciting when you’re travelling for a competition anyway.”
Oisin Joyce is the 11th-ranked javelin thrower at this week’s European Championships.
The top 12 from the Qualifiers will progress to tomorrow’s (Wednesday’s) final.
The plan is to be taking part in the final but, either way, he’ll take the lessons from the experience and use it to get better.
Next year’s Olympic Games will probably come a bit too soon for him, but Los Angeles in 2028 is far from an impossible dream.
“The Olympics is something that you always dream about, but achieving it is another thing,” says the man himself. “It’s about putting your head down and working hard.
“Really, from around 25 years of age onwards would be my prime for the javelin.
“But my plan is to stay fit and try and mature as quickly as I can.
“The javelin is something that can take a toll on the body, on the shoulders.
“When I’m 40, I won’t be throwing the javelin,” he smiled.
Remember the name.

* This interview appeared in the print edition of The Mayo News before Oisin Joyce competed in the European Under-20 championships last week. He finished sixth in last Wednesday's final, with a throw of 70.25m.