Small girl hammers records in world of giants

She climbed her Everest last December when she doubled the size of New Zealand's 60m+ club - now Hamilton throwing sensation Julia Ratcliffe has a whole bunch of smaller mountains to conquer.
Ratcliffe, 17, was the star of the weekend's low-key Waikato-Bay of Plenty athletics championships at Tauranga Domain, sending the 4kg hammer out over 60m four times to defend her senior women's and W19 titles.
Tauranga Ramblers' Livvie Duggan was second to Ratcliffe yesterday in both grades with a best throw of 37.69m.
Tauranga Boys' College middle distance runner Julian Oakley's senior 1500m title was the highlight of Saturday's schedule, a withering final 300m bringing him home in 4:04.06.
Last weekend Ratcliffe added nearly a metre to her New Zealand W17, W18 and W19 hammer records with a throw of 62.28m at the Porritt Classic in Hamilton.
She broke the record twice in the competition with 62.23m in round two and added another 5cm in round five.
Last December she became just the second New Zealand woman to throw the hammer more than 60m, achieving the feat at Porritt with a 61.32m hurl.
She is now second only to Tasha Williams, who holds the New Zealand senior record with a throw of 65.91m. At the national secondary schools athletics champs last year in Hastings she knocked Valerie Adams off her perch, beating her decade-old national hammer record by 3m.
After demolishing yesterday's field - which was just four-strong, with only Duggan and herself in the senior women's - the Waikato Diocesan head girl said her records tended to come in spurts.
"That Porritt throw last weekend came out of the blue. I'd had four or five weeks off over summer and the goal was to get back to where I left off but I blasted it out of the water.
"With throwing, or me in particular, it never seems to be an even progression. I go right up, stay there for a while, before plateauing a bit."
Her father, Dave, has been an athletics coach for years. Although his speciality wasn't the hammer throw, he's now coaching the rising star, using whatever tools the pair can find to improve technique.
Standing just 1.69m, Ratcliffe is a minnow internationally compared to some of the behemoths - male and female - who are found lurking in the hammer cage.
"Dad's picked up the (hammer-throwing) techniques by watching a few DVDs and a bit of YouTube. Hammer's not an event you have to be the fastest or strongest - technique is the big thing.
"Whenever I turn up for a competition everyone always seems so huge. I've got the added burden of stumpy arms as well but this body is all I've got to work with so I have counter that with good technique, getting as low as possible to the ground on my turns."
She was 11th at last year's Youth Olympics in Singapore, hampered by a sprained ankle, but has a fairly quiet international schedule this year after the age qualification for the Commonwealth Youth champs was lowered, meaning Ratcliffe misses out by six months.
A netball and hockey representative, she tried every form of track and field before picking up the hammer.
"Track and field isn't a sport where you can influence what anyone else is doing. You're out there competing against yourself because you can't stop anyone else doing well. I quite like that."