Lizzy Korczak loves throwing the javelin. This love inspires her to train hard and in turn this training, and a whole lot of talent, has led to an array of medals. These include Sussex Championship golds, gold at the last three English Schools competitions, silver at SIAB and silver at the past two England Athletics Champs.
Kate Matthews caught up with the 17-year-old to chat about her background in the sport, her training and how she is dealing with changes following isolation and Coronavirus.
Kate: Who are you?
Lizzy: I’m 17 and live just outside Brighton. I train at Brighton and Hove Athletics Club with coach Bob Willows who I have trained with for 5 years. I’m currently at school studying for my A-Levels, balancing athletics, school and other activities is a lot but I believe my education does come first.
Kate: What are your favourite distances/disciplines? And why?
Lizzy: Javelin and hammer are my favourite disciplines. I started Javelin when I was in year 6 (11 years old), after my headmaster told me I should try throwing, and I’ve loved it ever since. Hammer was just something I tried while I was waiting for my javelin training to start and I ended up really enjoying it. Javelin was always my favourite, so I specialised very quickly and have never regretted my choice. It’s the event which I always feel motivated to get out and train for. I have a great coach and training group who all get on really well, so training is almost always something I can look forward to.
Kate: What has kept you in it?
Lizzy: I do Javelin for enjoyment, always have and always will, the longs hours and early nights are hard work, but they always pay off when I get to a competition and just enjoy being able to throw well. Winning / PB’s are just a bonus.
Kate: What is your most proud athletics' achievement moment?
Lizzy: My proudest moment is winning my first English Schools for the first time back in 2017, it was a 
complete shock and was the first time I saw my hard work starting to pay off. My parents and coach always said I could do it but being my harshest critic, I had never really considered the possibility of it actually happening.
Kate: What has been the toughest moment?
Lizzy: The toughest moment was having to reduce my number of hours training per week so I could study for my GCSE’s last year. Although this decision was the right one, at the time it was hard to not be able to spend as much time down at the track as I wanted to. Especially since the weather was so lovely as well!
Kate: How often do you train (in normal times)?
Lizzy: Training per week is between 11-15 hours. This includes throwing, time in the gym and cross-training in other sports (Swimming, netball, Cycling) and is often dependent on matches and other non-sporting co-curricular activities.
Kate: Have you had any bad injuries and how did you deal with these?
Lizzy: I badly damaged my shoulder once and have had a few concussions, but that wasn’t from javelin and didn’t impact training too badly other then having to decrease hours per week.
Kate: Other than actual achievements/PBs, what has being part of athletics brought to your life?
Lizzy: Athletics has given me the opportunity to visit so many new places around the country. I also got to go to Finland last year, from this travelling I have met so many amazing people.
Kate: Best athletics memory?
Lizzy: My best memories is from summer a couple years ago and it was a beautiful evening and the sun was just setting and everyone was laughing and having a good time. It just made me realise how much I love javelin and training.
Kate: Weirdest athletics memory?
Lizzy: At English Schools last year I lost my trainers and had to spend all day in sliders, which was fine up until the podium pictures were being taken and I had to stand there in socks and sliders getting my medal. I thought it was hilarious, if you look at the pictures you can see me wearing them with my medal.
Kate: What would you say to younger people wanting to get started? 
Lizzy: I would tell the younger age groups to just have fun with it and enjoy what they are doing. There is no point going to training and not enjoying it. I accept that some sessions will go better than others and you might not always want to go, however if overall you aren’t enjoying it pick a different event. There are lots to try and there is an event for everyone.
Kate: What would you change about the sport?
Lizzy: If I could change British javelin, I would align the weights with the rest of Europe to make it easier for U18’s to qualify for European competitions. Also being able to throw both during the indoor season would be a huge improvement.
Kate: How do you juggle training/competitions around school?
Lizzy: Balancing school with javelin is hard but I plan out my week and know when different things have to be done by, and how much training I need to get in for each sport. Ultimately if my grades were to start slipping school comes before all sports regardless of what competitions etc are coming up.
Kate: Favourite athlete (past or present)?
Lizzy: As a young child I always liked watching Sir Chris Hoy, recently I found I really like Dina Asher-Smith and Thomas Roehler.
Kate: Any other favourites i.e. food, music, hobbies?
Lizzy: I’m really interested in Robotics and Mechanics and am currently in the Robotics team at school where we are planning to build a robot and take it over to Turkey to compete next March. I love being in the kitchen and have been blessing my family with cakes and many other sweet treats over the past few months.
Kate: How are you managing to keep fit/train during Corona?
Lizzie: During Lockdown I’ve had so much more spare time to train, so the hours per week has increased, the training itself hasn’t really changed other than being at home and not being with the rest of my training groups. My advice to anyone who is struggling to train in lockdown is to be creative as you can and stay active as much as possible, even if the training is completely different to what you would usually do any sort of exercise is better than nothing.