Walsh to face shot put arch-rival
World shot put champion Tom Walsh is clearly a quick healer.
The 25-year-old New Zealander recently claimed his first global outdoors title in London, to go with the world indoors crown and overall Diamond League mantle he annexed last year alongside an Olympic bronze medal.
But Walsh’s upset victory over the in-form American duo of Olympic champion Ryan Crouser and Rio silver medallist Joe Kovacs came at a price, with the Christchurch-based Timaru athlete confirming in the aftermath that he had suffered a groin tear just a day out from qualifying in London.
Walsh sucked up the pain and still won a historic gold – the first world champs podium by a Kiwi male – at London’s Olympic Stadium with a best toss of 22.03 metres. Kovacs was second with 21.66m and Crouser could not land a legit contending distance all night and faded to sixth with 21.20m.
Walsh feared the groin injury could seriously curtail his postlondon schedule where he very much has his sights on the potential US$50,000 (NZ$68,000) payday at the revamped Diamond League finale in Brussels on September 1 (Euro time).
But it looks like the Kiwi’s recovery powers are almost as impressive as his throwing ones, with the freshly minted world champion confirming he will be competing at the Birmingham Diamond League meet this weekend where he will reconvene his rivalry with Crouser and Kovacs in a major championship-level field.
‘‘London has been good to me. Now off to Birmingham for my next comp on the 20th. Can’t wait to get back out there and throw with the boys,’’ Walsh said on his Twitter account yesterday.
The Birmingham competition shapes as an intriguing one, with Walsh, Crouser and Kovacs joined by world champs bronze medallist Stipe Zunic of Croatia, as well as Tomas Stanek (Czech Republic), Michal Haratyk (Poland), Ryan Whiting (US) and Konrad Bukowiecki (Poland) to complete the full final top-eight field from London.
But it’s the matchup between Walsh and the American duo that the big Birmingham crowd will be anticipating, after the controversies of London where both protested no-throws in the aftermath of the Kiwi’s victory, with the Olympic champion lodging a second appeal when his first was turned down.
Walsh accepted the right of both rivals to protest what were clearly close red-flag calls immediately after the event, but it was Crouser’s second appeal, that carried over on to the next day and left Walsh unsure whether his gold would stand just minutes out from the medal ceremony, that grated for the Kiwi.
He was heavily critical of Crouser’s actions, which included turning up at the warmup track before the medal ceremony in his full podium attire, and made it clear their rivalry had gone to a new level.
‘‘The way Crouser went about it ... was just the wrong way, in my opinion, and I know a lot of other guys around the circuit think the same,’’ Walsh said.
‘‘Maybe he’ll realise what he’s done in a little bit of time, but I think it was just bad form. I’m not going to hold a grudge. Ryan might figure out in a little bit of time that he acted not in the right way.’’
Crouser has a best throw for the season of 22.65m, but appears to have lost form at the wrong time. After his London misfire, he was beaten into second at the Kamila Skolimowska Memorial meet in Warsaw this week by Stanek.