He's got Dry hopes!

CLIMBING onto the Commonwealth Games podium while crippled with osteoarthritis in his wrecked hip joint, Moray hammer thrower Mark Dry inspired a whole nation.

Now fresh from reconstruction surgery and refusing to quit the sport he loves, the 31-year-old will headline Elgin Youth Café's Inspiration Week by sharing his amazing story with his young audience.

Eight weeks after having a metal ball and socket inserted into his hip, Mark, from Burghead, believes his dream of winning an Olympic medal in Tokyo 2020 is still achievable.

Tonight he will tell young people in Elgin to take some hope from his own sporting adventure and not give up on their own dreams.

"I did this before in 2014 but a lot has changed since then," he said. "My second [Commonwealth] medal is a great part of the story and the surgery so I won't just be repeating the same story.

"It is very easy to tell people not to quit this, that and the next thing especially when you've never done it before. But I can by right tell my story as it happened, and that I didn't give up and the reward I got for it.

"It wasn't easy. There were the highs and the many, many lows that came with it – but it can be done. I am nothing special, I am just a lad from Burghead so if I can do it, someone else from this area can absolutely go on and do the same."

Now based in Loughborough, Mark came through the ranks of Elgin Amateur Athletics Club in his youth before developing into an international athlete.

He gained selection for the 2016 Rio Olympics and three consecutive Commonwealth Games, winning bronze at the last two.

However, all the twisting and turning in the hammer circle over many years took its toll on Mark's body.

He developed osteoarthritis due to wear-and-tear on his hip joint, and says he owes his continuing career to Professor Damian Griffin, the surgeon who has operated on him three times including his latest hip resurfacing surgery.

"I keep saying I'm MD 4.0. This is the fourth version of me, the current model that we are on. Hopefully it doesn't go any further."

Mark tore the labrum in the joint, lost almost all of his cartilage and had six anchors inserted during two operations to re-attach the hip.

Yet his desire to defend the Commonwealth bronze he won in Glasgow 2014 saw him gain selection for Australia's Gold Coast earlier this year – where he finished third again.

"I still don't understand how I did that. I was in horrible shape going in. I couldn't run or jump, I couldn't throw the way I wanted to throw and I couldn't get myself in the shape I wanted to be in because I just couldn't do the training."

Mark realised that despite his glory Down Under, major reconstructive surgery was the only way ahead.

"I've had a hip resurface so I've got a metal acetabulum [socket] and a metal femoral head [ball] and they have cut my greater trochanter off which is the side portion of my hip, the actual bone."

Screws were inserted to connect the metal to bone, which will be removed at the end of this month if his surgeon is happy the joint is knitting together.

Mark came off crutches three weeks ahead of schedule and both doctors and physios have been amazed by his progress.

"To get back to an Olympic Games from this kind of surgery has never been done before. If this doesn't work it will be the end. I was fully aware of the possibility that this surgery might not work but until it fails then it is not the end.

"I am too invested in the story and everything now. You can spend all that time to nearly get to the top and you never know how close you are.

"It might be the breakthrough I need, it might make my hip better than it was before. I have learned so much technically from having all these problems and I will only ever be rewarded with the gift at the end if I see it out to the end.

"I would love an Olympic medal and that's the plan, that is what I am fighting back for.

"There's much more honour in the fight than there is in the end result. The dream is still alive. It is a very, very long way away and a very small chance but that Commonwealth medal has just shown me that literally anything is possible."

Mark's speech will be heard at Elgin Youth Café at 8.30pm tonight.