Olivia Stevenson
Athlete Profile
Olivia Stevenson is sixteen years of age and she has been an athlete with Kingston upon Hull Athletic Club since 2011.
Since that time she has progressed from the clubs junior training group, where like all of our youngsters she was schooled in all of the athletic disciplines, the jumps, runs and throws, and has reached a point today where she is one of the outstanding young athletes in Great Britain. She is a superb hammer thrower, an England International, and former British record holder. She competes in the under17 age category, where she is currently ranked the number 3 hammer thrower in the UK.
Her debut appearance in the blue and gold vest of Kingston came at the club’s annual Costello Open meeting in April of 2011, where she ran in the 70 metres hurdles race. A month later she made her league debut for the club at a Young Athletes League meeting in Sheffield, where she competed in the shot event. A week after that she made her debut appearance at the County Championships, which found her running in the 800 metres and competing in the long jump. Her most significant appearance however was to come in her last meeting of the season, a Humber League match at Costello where she she threw in her first hammer competition.
The 2012 track & field season saw her make steady progress in all the throwing events, but especially in the hammer and discus disciplines. At May’s County Championships she was the gold medallist in the shot putt. She won two County vest’s, the first was in the regional final of the English Schools track & field cup she won the discus competition, and the second came at the Inter Counties meeting in Grantham, where she was in action in the shot event. She made her debut in the National Championships at Bedford, where she competed in the hammer final.
2013 brought a move up to the under15 age group, at her first championship meeting of the year, the Humberside Schools event she won gold medals in the hammer and discus and took the silver medal in the shot. In July two more County vests followed, firstly with a debut appearance in this country’s biggest junior and youth competition, the English Schools Championships, held at the Alexander Stadium in Birmingham, where she competed in the discus final. The Northern Inter Counties Championships, held that year at the Costello Stadium brought her the second vest, and victory in the hammer. August took her to the Wavertree Stadium in Liverpool for the Northern Championships, where she won her first major Championship medal, taking the gold in the hammer final.
On the last day of August came a trek down south to Bedford for the England Championships, where she threw a new PB of 47.22m in the hammer final to take a 4th place finish. Throughout the season Ollie was in regular league competition for the club in the National Youth Development League and Humber League fixtures.
She finished the 2013 track & field season ranked UK number 4 under 15 hammer.
With the opening of the 2014 season Ollie was looking to push on and consolidate on the excellent progress she had made in the previous year. There was a long pre season which saw her warming up for the battles to come at a number of open meetings, at Cleckheaton, Wakefield, and of course the Kingston Open, plus a trip over the Pennines to the always popular Liverpool throws and jumps festival, where she picked up the hammer and discus gold medals. The serious competitions then began, with May’s County Championships first on the agenda, where the hammer and discus gold medals were added to her collection. June saw her back on duty for the County up at the Gateshead International Stadium for the regional final of the English Schools track & field cup, where she won the discus throw competition. Two Days later she was back on home soil at Costello for the Humberside Schools Championships, where she successfully defended her hammer and discus titles. July saw another County call up and she was on the team bus down to Birmingham for the young athletes Holy Grail, the English Schools Championships. The hammer final was a magnificent spectacle, with all of England’s elite young throwers in competition. Going into the 6th and final round Ollie led the competition with her lifetime best effort of 54.01m, but was beaten to the gold by her huge rival Katie Head, who also had to produce a lifetime best performance. A silver medal at English Schools, the stuff of dreams. The month of August and it was off to Wigan for the Northern Championships, where the hammer and the discus gold medals were secured. On the last weekend in August she was in Bedford for the England Championships, where another top class performance earned her the silver medal. She also competed in the discus final at the National’s, taking a 6th place finish. Throughout the year she was one of the key members of the Kingston Junior team, in their campaign in the National Youth Development League.
She finished the 2014 track & field season ranked UK number 2 under 15 hammer.
2015 saw her move up to the under 17 age group, where in addition to her duties in the Youth Development League, she was also called into the senior team for two of their league matches in North Division one. Her championship season began on the 13th of May at the East Riding Schools Championships, where she won the hammer and discus gold medals, and took the bronze in the javelin. Ten days later she made a successful defence of her County hammer title. She defended another of her hammer titles at Junes Humberside Schools Championships, and this will always be remembered as the day that a UK record was broken at the event, with her enormous throw of 60.23m. July took her up to Gateshead for the English Schools Championships which produced another outstanding and hard fought final, with her once again winning the silver medal, and coming so close to the gold.
The following week she made her International Debut, representing England in the Schools Home Countries International meeting in Grangemouth, Scotland, where she won the silver medal in the hammer competition.
Business as usual in August, up to Middlesbrough for the Northern Championships, where she took her third consecutive Northern hammer title, and added a bronze medal in the discus event as well.
September took her to the Sport City Stadium in Manchester for her debut appearance at the UK School Games, where she represented North East England at this annual competition for athletes in the under 17age category. She won the bronze medal in the hammer competition and enjoyed a fantastic experience.
She has undergone an intense autumn and winter of fitness, strength and conditioning and is in great physical shape, and is eagerly awaiting the commencement of the 2016 campaign.
Her ambitions and hopes for the new track & field season are:-
“To qualify for European Youths, I’ve got to get 62 metres” (European Youth Championships in Tbilisi, Georgia 14 – 17.07.2016)
“Win gold at English Schools”
“Defend my Northern title and the other ones as well”
