Stephanie Ratcliffe has broken the 20 year old Australian record in the hammer throw with a performance of 73.11m.
Cover photo of Stephanie Ratcliffe in action at the 2021 Melbourne Track Classic. Photo by Tim McGrath. >> Photo Gallery
The 22-year-old Victorian is studying neuroscience at Harvard and set the mark in winning the NCAA East Preliminary Meet in Jacksonville, Florida. The performance surpasses the 71.12m mark set by 2001 world championship bronze medallist, Bronwyn Eagles, in 2003.
Ratcliffe’s performance is just outside the 73.60m qualifying mark for this year’s World Championships in Budapest.
Ratcliffe has improved her personal best by almost 20 metres over the past four years with steady improvement, before breaking through the 70m mark for the first time at the end of March.
- 2020: 54.12m
- 2021: 61.81m
- 2022: 64.04m
- 2023: 73.11m
Another thrower based at Harvard who is enjoying a similar performance improvement is NSW shot putter Alexander Kolesnikoff, who has moved to fourth on the Australian all-time list with a 20.69m personal best. Kolesnikoff also took out his event at the NCAA East Preliminary Meet, in 20.36m.
The NCAA Championships will take place in Austin, Texas from 7-10 June.
