ALL too often in a sporting context, the word inspirational is bandied about willy-nilly. But Rachel Hunter’s journey from bullied schoolgirl to international athlete can unquestionably be described as inspiring.

These days, the hammer thrower from Ayr is Scotland’s leading light in the discipline and is going into this year’s outdoor season looking to make a real impact.

She has already made a handful of appearances in 2017, setting a new personal best of 66.46 metres in February and quickly followed that up with selection for the Great Britain team that competed at the European Throws Cup in Gran Canaria.

Despite these high points though, Hunter’s 2017 has been interrupted by a run of niggly injuries including a broken finger and injured shoulder.

However, as the British Championships, which double as the trials for the 2017 World Championships, approach in the coming weeks, Hunter is in a good frame of mind.

“I’m definitely in good shape – I’ve had a really good winter’s training,” the 23 year-old says. “Before I hurt my shoulder, I was throwing really well and so I started to think that qualification for the worlds might be within my reach.

“After hurting my shoulder though, it will be much harder. But it’s nice being able to go to the British Championships knowing that selection for the worlds isn’t completely out of the question.”

Hunter comes across as a chatty and confident individual but she hasn’t always been quite so self-assured. She was, she says, badly bullied during her school years, a situation that must be impossibly hard for a teenage girl to deal with.

“When I was at school, I didn’t have a voice – I just went with everything and didn’t speak up at all,” she recalls. “I got bullied because I was really sporty – I loved football, I loved PE and I didn’t wear make-up because that just wasn’t me. And so people were really horrible to me.”

But rather than let the bullies discourage her from taking part in sport, she ignored them and continued to chase her dream of becoming an elite athlete – a dream that has, ultimately, been fulfilled.

At the age of just 19, Hunter was selected to represent Team Scotland at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, vindicating her choice to pursue her goals in sport.

And just a few weeks before the Glasgow 2014, she had an encounter with one of the individuals who had bullied her all those years before that she admits was one of the most gratifying moments of her life.

“I was in McDonalds with my sister and one of the guys who used to bully me served us,” she says. “That was so satisfying. It made me feel so good about myself- I’d never felt like that in my life. It was amazing because I was standing there thinking ‘I’ve got a good job, I’m doing athletics which is something that I love and I’m going to the Commonwealth Games’. And he was working in McDonalds. It was karma I think. And what’s so great is that I stuck to what I wanted to do and what I enjoyed and I think that’s the most important thing.”

Hunter’s drive and determination to succeed has not only helped her throughout her teenage years, it is also coming in particularly useful these days as she tussles with combing her athletics career with her job in an orthopaedic rehab ward for the elderly.

She regularly does shifts over 12 hours and so combining that with her training and competition schedule is no mean feat. “It can be hard to combine the two but I really enjoy my job and I’ve got the most lovely patients,” she says. “It’s tough when I’m on night-shift or I’ve been working all weekend and then need to go training but I just make the most of it. I think my work has made me want it even more in athletics because it’s not my whole life. My work life and athletics life are so different and I think that’s really helpful.”

Hunter’s primary goal for the coming months is to secure qualification for the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, which are now only 10 months away.

Her appearance at Glasgow 2014 was, she admits, a huge learning curve and a seventh place finish was an impressive Games debut. And her experience in Hampden stadium has only served to increase her motivation to secure a second Commonwealth Games appearance next year.

“It was an amazing experience and I think it really helped me going forward. I was the first person to throw at Hampden and the noise just went up and up and up which was just incredible.

“I think it will really help me for Gold Coast because now, I know exactly what to expect.”