Athletics: Gillespie secures World Cup gold

Jim Gillespie shows off his silver medal.

Gillespie struck gold in Derby while competing in the Heavyweight Hammer Triathlon World Cup on Saturday against rivals from the United States, Canada and across Europe, with the tougher opponents being Lithuania, Russia and Germany.

And if that wasn’t enough, the 54-year-old followed this honour by winning the Midlands Masters Strongest Man competition on the same day.

Jim, who represents Ireland at international level and has broken a series of national records, got off to a fantastic start as he threw a personal best in the one-handed hammer, measuring 15.82m.

Next up was the 10 kilo hammer. Another great throw of 10.85m was just below Jim’s all-time best, but still enough to keep him among the favourites.

In the final event - the 12.5kg hammer - Jim kept his cool to record another personal best.

This time he threw 9.62m to secure victory.

“These performances brought me the World Cup title, something that has left me in a bit of a daze to be honest,” Jim said.

“There was some athletes of real quality in the competition so to win is amazing.”

But Jim was in no mood to rest on his laurels and followed that up by competing in the Midlands Masters Strongest Man event.

Jim added: “The competition is run along the same lines of the strongman challenges shown on TV where various events involving lifting and throwing some very heavy implements for distance and height.

“And incredibly I won that as well, so not a bad day all round.”