OTTAWA: As a hammer thrower, Canadian Sultana Frizell doesn’t travel light. While she uses the hammer provided in competitions, she brings her practice gear on the road.
“I usually pack one of my suitcases with all my wires and balls and handles in there. And any kind of extra equipment that I need,” she explained. “I usually come in right under the 70 [pound airline limit] or right at the 70.”
The women hurl a four-kilogram metal ball (7.26 kilos for the men) attached to a grip by a steel wire no longer than 1.22 metres.
Apparently each time they thought her hammer gear compete with was explosives-related. “And I’m like ‘No, no, no, no.’ Thank God they had Wi-Fi in there because I’m trying to tell this person who doesn’t speak English and I don’t speak Korean that this is a hammer.”
The University of Georgia product is looking to lay down a marker on the Gold Coast after enduring an injury to a tendon in her foot and failing to qualify for Rio.
Frizell has not competed much in recent months, saying things just did not come together schedule-wise. Missing out on qualifying for the 2017 IAAF World Championships by a matter of centimetres, she filled in the time by trying her hand at the New Brunswick Highland Games Festival in Fredericton.
