Lara Nielsen

DOB: 19 December 1992

Age: 

Coach: Grahame Pitt
Event: Hammer Throw
Occupation: Teacher

Lara Nielsen was a leading Australian hammer thrower in her junior years, being selected to represent
the green and gold at the 2010 World Junior Championships. She left the junior ranks with a PB of 56.04m, achieved when winning the Australian under-20 title in 2010. Over the next seven years as a senior athlete, she has steadily improved to her current best of 66.90m. Through those years as a senior athlete she has added 10 metres to her PB, now the seventh best hammer thrower in Australian history. She has also won the last five consecutive national hammer throw titles.

Lara has also been on the international stage as a senior athlete, with three consecutive finals appearances. She debuted in 2014 at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games placing ninth in the final. In 2015 and 2017 she competed at the World University Games placing seventh and sixth, respectively in the finals. At the most recent Games, in Taipei, she threw 65.47m in the final, just short of her PB.

She placed second at the 2018 Australian Championships and was selected for her second Commonwealth Games team.