Joyce receives heroes welcome on return home

To say it has been a whirlwind two weeks for Oisin Joyce would be putting it lightly.

The Ballinrobe native became only the fourth Irish athlete to win an individual medal at the World Athletics U20 Championships, and the first to win a throws medal.

Joyce, a recipient of the Western People Mayo Sports Stars Awards in 2022 and 2023, set a new national U20 javelin record with a throw of 73.89m at the finals in Peru, an improvement of 47 centimetres on the previous personal best he set back in Jun at the Bauhaus Jurgen Gala in Germany.

Joyce knew it was a good throw when the javelin left his hand, but not how good.

“I thought it was a good throw. but I had no idea of how far it was in my head,” Joyce told the Western People. “I didn't really know whether it was 73 or not but it felt straight away like a really good throw.

“The years at underage, I kind of realised that I could kind of mix it with international athletes and I was kind of getting to a high enough standard. I've been able to kind of improve year on year and now I came third in the world so not too bad, I suppose!” 

A large crowd descended to his hometown last Wednesday evening for the homecoming event, which was organised by his club, Lake District AC, where the 19-year-old received a garda escort and a ‘mental’ welcome that will not be forgotten. He hopes many of the young supporters who turned out will get involved with the club.

“It was a lot more than I expected to be. A bit of a shock, when I had to walk through all the crowds.

“It is nice to get the support from everyone behind you and your local community, and it's good to see so many young kids showing up that hopefully get an interest in it. Hopefully they follow on and pick up a javelin or pick up something in that athletic club. It just means a lot to us.

“There's plenty of young lads that's already coming through, even younger kids, hopefully they all get interested in that.

“When I was younger, I obviously had dreams of being on a stage like this and stuff like that. This definitely wouldn’t be the end goal now, so hopefully I can kick on from here.

It has been a unique journey for the former Ballinrobe Community School student, who begins college life at the University of Limerick this week, where he will be studying sports science.

He has already linked with up with the college when it comes to training, and will train with his clubmate Conor Hughes down in Limerick.

As far as competition in the near future, he will wrap his season up soon before taking a few weeks off and then prepare for the new season in the winter.

“I'll sit down and I'll have a look at my coach at the start of the year and kind of target something and pick something out. There's nothing in my head at the minute now to be honest with you that I can think of.

“But I'll sit down in four weeks, I'll look at the next season fixtures and I'll pick something out then.”