Not all modern athletics events trace their origins from ancient Greece; hammer evolved from northern-European traditions. Some of the earliest long throws date back to the ancient Irish Tailteann Games c.1200BCE with the “roth-cleas” or wheel-feat. This was more likely the throwing of an axle and wheel than a hammer, but it was done by spinning and releasing it, something we can see in modern hammer technique.
By medieval times in Britain there were two distinct long throws: pitching the bar – an axel bar from a cart – and throwing the sledgehammer, from which modern hammer throwing is more directly descended. There records from the sixteenth century which refer to, “throwing the coulter” (plough blade), “throwing the hammer”, and “casting of the sledge”.
Unfortunately, all of the above appear in court records as part of the inquest into deaths of people killed in sledgehammer throwing accidents, usually at fairs between 1566 and 1572. While undoubtably tragic, it does give us evidence that throwing was part of local fairs and organised games, and the competitions were watched by spectators, however unsafely.
Image: Public domain via Wikimedia Commons
References to “throwing the sledge” at rural fairs continued to appear in written sources throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in Britain. The “sledge” used in these competitions were actual sledgehammers. Lighter ones (8-16 lb) were usually blacksmiths or wheelwrights’ tools – the sort used to pound iron rims onto wooden cartwheels – while the heaviest hammers, 20lb or more, were used for quarrying rock. The two separate weights of the implements are reflected in the light and heavy hammer competitions at various Border and Highland Games in the nineteenth century. A mark of 40ft/12.19m with a 24lb hammer by John Brown is one of the earliest recorded distances for hammer, from the St Fillan’s Highland Games, Lochearnhead on 6 September 1826. It is worth noting that during this era distances were likely measured from the footmark of the thrower rather than from the edge of a defined throwing area, meaning a follow-through was allowed, unlike in today’s competition. Throwing the lighter (16lb) hammer Highlands Games competitor John Tait is credited with throws as huge as 130 – 150ft in the 1850s. Up until this point, throwers had been allowed to make unlimited turns before releasing the hammer, though for the safety of spectators thought this was changed the in favour of a standing throw which is still used in the Highland Games today.
Hammer throwing in England in the nineteenth century was incorporated into the games and physical education programmes of the public schools and by the Oxford and Cambridge colleges, although the weights varied: 19-20lb at Oxford, 14lb at Cambridge. It has been suggested that the reason hammer, and weight putting, were contested at the Oxford v Cambridge Sports of this era was that a Scottish professional athlete was living in Oxford at this time and helped to draw up the first programme.
Photo: Mark Shearman
The modern form of hammer throwing we see in athletics competitions today was set down by J.G. Chambers. He introduced the hammer circle in 1878, restricting the space from which a throw can be made and making both a run up and follow through illegal. It’s worth noting that the rather short lived “hammer square” was also introduced in the 1870s, and that universal acceptance of a defined throwing area with no run up or follow through was not gained until the 1908 Olympics.
Changes to the hammer itself were also being made in this period. Rule changes allowing wire-handled hammers were introduced in the 1890s, although again not universally accepted until 1907-08. The hammer throw at the Highland Games still uses a fixed handle, rather than a wire.
Women’s hammer
At world level, marks with a 4kg hammer can be traced back to several Spanish throwers in the early 1930s. It is suggested that Suzanne Allday practiced throwing the hammer in the 1950s, probably with her husband Peter, but no marks are known.
In the 1970s two other discus-throwing wives of international hammer throwers did record marks – 32.08m by Rosemary Payne (the world’s first women’s 30m hammer throw) at the British Veteran’s Championships, and 38.30m by Dorothy Chipchase in an exhibition in 1977. By the mid-1980s hammer competitions for women were gradually being introduced, most notably at West London Hammer School Meetings and at trials at Carnegie College, Leeds, organised to promote the (then) non-contested women’s field events – pole vault, triple hump and hammer.
Women’s hammer was introduced in the UK and Amateur Athletic Association championships as invitation event in 1991, becoming a full status event in 1993. In major international competition it first appeared at the 1998 Commonwealth Games, followed by the 2000 Olympics in Sydney.