Walsh in the mood to shine
"I know I say this every year, but I'm stronger and faster, I really am." Tom Walsh
It’s early doors, but don’t be surprised if world shot put champ Tom Walsh is peppering the 22-metre mark in Hamilton for today’s Porritt Classic.
That’s the sort of form, and mood, he’s in as he eyes an early peak for next month’s world indoors champs in Birmingham (March 2-4) and the Commonwealth Games that will follow soon after on the Gold Coast.
The annual Porritt meet will be Walsh’s last domestic sharpemer before he heads to the United States for 10 days’ indoor preparation ahead of the Birmingham showdown when the big-boppers of the sport are expected to reconvene for the first time in 2018.
And Walsh, who on Thursday night won his first Halberg award as New Zealand’s sportsman of the year for 2017, was in a typically ebullient mood as he reflected on stepping back into the competitive arena very much with the target on his back.
‘‘Everything is going pretty good, I’m injury-free, and there are no niggles,’’ he said of his summer buildup.
‘‘I know I say this every year, but I’m stronger and faster, I really am.
‘‘We’ve been doing some different types of training this year and it’s paying off with some good PBS in the weight room, and throwing. I’ve got some real horsepower, I’ve just got to be able to line it up.’’
Walsh is well aware that as reigning world champion, both indoors and out now, he enters the 2018 season as the hunted, rather than the hunter. It’s a situation he relishes.
‘‘The boys are going pretty crazy so far. There’s six guys over 21 metres already and it’s early February.
‘‘That’s pretty good distances for this time of the year so I know the boys are hunting me down,’’ Walsh said.
The grin plastered on his face revealed it was not a situation that haunted him at all.
Walsh said he expected the American challenge to be significant in Birmingham, though admitted he had one advantage there with the likes of Olympic champion Ryan Crouser, Joe Kovacs, and last year’s surprise Diamond League winner Darrell Hill having to negotiate a tough qualifying process first.
‘‘They’ve got to get through the US trials first and they’re only allowed to take two, so it makes my job a little easier,’’ he noted.
As for his ambitions beyond Birmingham, and the potential of snaring the Commonwealth Games gold that eluded him in Glasgow, well let’s just say that Walsh is highly motivated.
‘‘There’s two things I haven’t got – I’m obviously missing my Olympic gold which I’m going to get at some point, and the gold at the Commonwealth Games,’’ he said at the Halberg Awards, where he was resplendent in a kilt reflecting his mother’s Scottish heritage.
‘‘Those are the big things I’m really pushing for ... I’m pretty happy with the way things are going in training and this weekend will show me how I’m tracking as well.’’