Nick Percy isn’t a pretty crier – none of his family are.
He threw a discus 67.73 metres in April: a Scottish record, Olympic standard and the second best-ever by a British athlete.
The throw of his lifetime left the Glaswegian an emotional wreck.
“I can tell you I burst into tears straight away,” said Percy. “I was fortunate to have my dad there and I am being honest when I say I squeezed him so hard, I broke one of his ribs.
“I made my mum cry on a call straight after us. None of us are pretty criers – I was a blubbering mess on dad’s shoulder. I have no shame in saying that.”
Percy has been knocking on the door of discus greatness for a decade and finally kicked it down with a stunning performance in the place they call Throw Town.
Certain venues have all of the tools to catapult field athletes to new heights – Chula Vista in California is a mecca for long jumpers, with Greg Rutherford setting his 8.51m British record there in 2014.
The tiny rural town of Ramona, Oakland, with a population of just a few hundred people, is now the place to be if you are a thrower – specifically Millican Field and Seal Throwing Club.
In a story that could have been lifted from a Hollywood script, Don Millican and Caleb Seal bought a cow field, developed it, got it certified by World Athletics and built a passion project.
Percy’s interest was piqued when he saw American Alex Roe clear the 70m mark last year and, at his own expense, he paid to spend three weeks and compete at the facility.
The numbers speak for themselves. At one point this year, six of the best 10 throws in the world happened on that converted cow field and in their biggest coup yet, Lithuanian Mykolas Alekna broke the world record there with 74.35m in April.
Percy has faced some social media pushback on the manufactured nature of the facility but he passionately believes in Millican and Seal’s project.
“You can have the best facilities in the world and the best conditions but it is not a given that you will throw far,” said Percy, who was joined there by fellow Scottish discus thrower Kirsty Law.
“A lot of people didn’t throw far, a lot of people struggled. You still have to do it.
“It is a lovely facility where everyone wants to be their best, everyone is allowed to come and compete there. We were all cheering each other on and wanting each other to do well, that atmosphere alone helps people throw further.
“I’m just fortunate I had good conditions that day and I still threw well. The stars aligned and the gods were praying for me that day.
“It is a performance that I have always wanted and a lifelong dream. It just means so much.”
Born in Glasgow but brought up on the Isle of Wight, Percy’s talent was honed by coach Ray Scovell.
In an addition to his repertoire, the 29-year-old took over some of Scovell’s coaching work when his mentor passed away during the pandemic.
“I have absolutely loved coaching,” said Percy, who is now working at his own school in the town of Ryde. “Even if I were to stop throwing, I would still be coaching.
“It does give you a different view of how the sport is, how people view it and seeing how people can be successful without training like a professional athlete.
“It is interesting to see how you don’t have to be killing yourself for 30 or 40 hours a week, you can be doing 24 hours of training, prehab, rehab and lifting throughout the week and maybe be better. That is age, experience and not being an idiot trying to be better than everyone in 20 minutes.”
Coaching is giving Percy a different perspective but having missed out on Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020, he now only has eyes for an Olympic place.
He already has the grade A standard for Paris 2024 and needs to finish in the top two at the Olympic Trials in Manchester on the last weekend of June to rubber-stamp his selection.
Percy will again go head-to-head with two-time Olympian and British record holder Lawrence Okoye for the right to be crowned UK champion.
“Trials is the only thing that really matters now – at least with my understanding of the selection policy,” said Percy. “I just want to try and keep competing as well as I can, stay consistent and just be in the top two.
“I have nothing against Lawrence, hopefully I can beat him there and it gets me to the Olympics straight away.
“I want Lawrence to be there, I want him to have the standard and if anyone else gets the standard, I want them to be there too. It would be lovely if we could have three throwers go to the Olympics – the last time we did that was London 2012.”
Discus has never been a young person’s game, with new world record holder Alekna an outlier aged 21 and Percy approaching the traditional peak age for the discipline.
“I think the big thing with me is that the consistency is still there, which is amazing,” he said. “I am taking that step forward and one of the big things is getting a bit older.
“You have these freak athletes, these young boys throwing far and it doesn’t happen: the 30-year-old mark is normally when it starts happening and that is the end of the year for me.
“That extra bit of experience, the body is changing, getting a little bit better. You learn not just how to be an athlete but a person.”
Remarkably, at time of writing, Percy is the only British male field eventer to have the World Athletics Olympic standard.
Okoye, long jumper Jacob Fincham-Dukes and shot putter Scott Lincoln have got the ‘B’ standard, far from a guarantee of a place on the train to the French capital in an increasingly restrictive selection landscape.
Team GB have won a field event medal in the nine of the last 10 Olympics, only missing out at Athens 2004. Holly Bradshaw bailed them out with bronze at Tokyo 2020 and women’s pole vault may again be the saviour with world indoor champion Molly Caudery throwing her name into contention for a podium place after a stunning winter’s work.
Percy believes it is the responsibility of individual athletes, not just UK Athletics, to drive standards across disciplines in a similar way to other nations.
“We have to focus on ourselves,” said Percy. “Knowing other people are there and can do it is great to push us along but if we don’t achieve, it is on us.
“Sweden have done it. Jamaica was a sprinting nation and now they have got great jumpers, they have got really good throwers. It’s annoying for me as I’ve now got to throw against them, but it’s lovely to see how other nations have done it. Now we need to do it.”
Percy’s journey began at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in his native city and he will lean on a simple philosophy as he hopes to make a maiden major final in Paris.
“My mantra is: be boring,” Percy explained. “You can’t go into training saying, ‘I’ve got to change this.’ No – you know what caused good results and what you have to do to get a big performance out of yourself.
“Just be boring, don’t change it, don’t act differently because you have got a good result. We are all the same at the end of the day and the training has got to stay the same.
“I would love to say I could eat my bodyweight in chocolate and still throw far, but I have got to keep working. I won’t change. It’s the biggest thing Ray told me, so I’m going to try and stick to it.”
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