In the quest for international medals, the British No.1 shot putter is now training in Australia under a new coach

"What am I going to do all day?” thought Scott Lincoln. The 19-time national champion had finished training for the day. His chores were done, his bags were packed and his flight from Australia back to the UK for the British Championships wasn’t until later that evening. “It was weird,” he says. “I felt really stress-free and I wasn’t used to that.”

Lincoln moved to Australia in November 2024 after an impressive season – which included a 21.31m personal best and fourth place at the European Athletics Championships in Rome – was clouded by a disappointing Olympic Games in Paris.

“Things were working to some extent, but I guess I wanted more,” admits the 31-year-old. “It was nobody’s fault other than my own [in Paris]. It was a bad day at the office and I couldn’t really put my finger on what it was, but I was just sick of going to major championships and not qualifying for finals. I was just a little bit fed up and I fancied a change.”

Now coached by London 2012 Olympian Dale Stevenson – the Australian who guided New Zealand’s Tom Walsh to three world shot put titles, two Olympic bronze medals and Commonwealth gold – Lincoln has joined a talented group of athletes including Matt Denny (Olympic discus bronze medallist) and Jacko Gill (Commonwealth shot put silver medallist).

Interestingly, he has cut down on training since moving to Australia. “Dale is big on minimal effective dosages,” he says. “Being fresh for every session is more important than flogging yourself in the gym every day, especially at my training age.”

Increased rest days have opened up opportunities for new adventures, as well as creating greater capacity for life admin. Having his bags packed in advance of a trip was no coincidence; Lincoln is now more organised with a less cluttered mind.

Stevenson’s approach appears to be subtle but effective.

“He’s more about the whole process than the specifics, so it’s quite refreshing,” says Lincoln, who won Commonwealth Games bronze in 2022. He recalls being questioned by his coach on arrival: “He made me do a couple of standing throws and he was just asking questions, like, ‘Do you feel like you’re striking them well?’ and I was like, ‘Yeah, I am’, and he said, ‘Interesting, you’re not hitting them at all.’

“It’s been a weird one because it doesn’t feel like a lot has changed since then, but when I look back and compare now to then, my technique has improved a lot. I’m nowhere near where I should be, in my opinion, but I’ve never been in a position where I’m throwing further in training than I am in competition – it’s usually the other way around – so I know for a fact that there’s a lot more in me.”

Lincoln’s review of the season so far is a measure of how far he has come. He competed at the UK Indoor Championships within 48 hours of a long-haul flight and although he didn’t feel he connected with any of his efforts, he threw a best of 20.86m, a distance he admits he’d have been happy with 12 months ago.

He qualified with ease for the European Indoor Championships final, finishing just outside the medals with 20.73m, and although disappointed with his performance at the World Indoors, it brought another major championship experience.

September’s outdoor World Championships presents another opportunity to mix it up at the business end of a major competition. The qualifying standard is 21.50m, not far off Lincoln’s current best. He’s looking beyond that, though, and wants to be the first British athlete to throw in excess of 22 metres.

“We speak about allowing me to be open enough to win medals,” he says. “If you throw 22.00m/22.50m at a major then you’re knocking on that door. That’s where we want to be, fighting with the top three or four in the world. That’s the aim for the season.”

Training schedule

Lincoln trains in a two-week cycle alternating one day on, one day off. Each day includes a throwing session followed by a lifting session in the gym, with the afternoon off.

The gym session will usually include between six to eight lifts, some of them specific, some of them Olympic lifts, plus additional sprinting and plyometric work.

“It’s very different, but I’ve embraced it,” he says. “Physically I’m in great shape in the gym – all of my gym numbers have gone through the roof – but I’m just trying to replicate the type of throw I do in training in a high-pressure situation such as a big competition, so it’s just figuring all of that out at the moment and being fearless.”

Lincoln is throwing more in Australia than he did in the UK, but a key difference is a regular change in implement weight versus working with a fixed weight for a longer period (e.g. 6-8 weeks).

“I’ve gone from every throw being for distance and high in tension to maybe one intense session in every four sessions,” he says. “We also change weight regularly – up as high as 8kg and down as low as 6.5kg – so some sessions I’ll do two different weights alternatively. I’ll throw a 7.26kg then a 6.5kg, or a 7.5kg and down to a 6.5kg, it varies [based on targeted speed or technical changes] and I don’t question it, I just trust the process.

“I’ve also been training a bit more leading into competitions. Usually, I’d have a few days of rest and drop the weights right down, whereas now I’m training even up until the day before the competition, so that’s new and pretty exciting too.

“At the moment Dale is also challenging me in ways to make me feel a bit more comfortable in uncomfortable situations. He’s making me accountable for all of my actions so that when I do get to a championships, I know what I’m doing, and I’ve got the confidence behind me.”

Favourite session: “I love intense throwing sessions. I don’t have a specific favourite, but you can find cracks in your technique by adding intensity. That’s what I’m finding in competitions in high stress environments – you become tense and you’ve got to try and see past that to enable you to throw far, so it’s a massive learning curve.”

Least favourite session: “I’ve been enjoying everything, but maybe that’s just because it’s all fresh right now!”