Walsh ready for shot at history
Kiwi athletics ace tells Marc Hinton he’s now within touching distance of the greatest mark of them all.
One lousy centimetre. That was all that stood between big Tom Walsh and another world shot put title in 2019. As frustrating as that miniscule distance was for New Zealand’s premier athlete and warm prospect for gold come the Tokyo Olympics next year, it was another number weighing more heavily on Walsh’s mind as he sat down with the Star-Times to assess his season gone and the challenges lurking in 2020.
That number was 23. It was 23cm by which Walsh improved his personal best when he tossed the 7.26kg silver sphere out to 22.90 metres with his opening throw of the world championships final in Doha in October. At the time it was the fourth best distance of all time, smashed the event record and was the furthest anyone has thrown in the modern era of drug-tested track and field.
That 22.90m also leaves him a tantalising 23cm from beating the world record mark of 23.12m held by American Randy Barnes from 1990, an era when the big men of this sport were fuelled by much more than burning desire and latent natural ability. He is convinced it’s a mark he and the best of his peers are capable of reaching, and the events of that warm evening in Doha just a few months back tend to indicate that Walsh may be on to something.
What unfolded that night has been labelled one of the greatest events in athletics history. In Walsh’s mind it might even be the best there has ever been. He’s a little biased, but he rates it better even than Mike Powell v Carl Lewis in the long jump final of the 1991 world champs for the simple reason that three athletes took their event to pretty special territory, all at the same time.
Following Walsh’s opening throw of 22.90m, the competition ebbed and flowed to a glorious crescendo. Having set the standard from the off, the burly Cantab entered what you might call ‘‘the moon or bust phase’’.
‘‘I was ‘righto, I’m not that far off the world record; I’m not going to have many other days like this, I’m going to have a crack at it’. That’s exactly what I did,’’ says the 27-year-old pride of Timaru. ‘‘All my other throws were probably over 22.30 . . . I wouldn’t change the way I went about it. The other guys had another five rounds to beat me, and they managed to do it and deserved it. For three guys to throw that in one competition was just crazy.’’
Walsh, the defending champ, never recorded another legal distance beyond his first effort. And his rivals started warming to their task. Brazilian Darlan Romani threw 22.53 in the second round. Eventual winner Joe Kovacs had 21.95 and 21.94 in the fourth and fifth rounds. Olympic champion Ryan Crouser wasn’t about to die wondering either, recording 22.71 with his fourth attempt, on the back of a pair of 22.36s earlier.
Then came something truly special in the sixth, and final, round. Kovacs exploded, sending the shot out to 22.91m to nudge past Walsh by that single centimetre. It was the equal third best throw of all time.
Crouser then nearly pulled off a miracle. He too went big with his final attempt, but when the distance came up he had joined Walsh on 22.90m and snatched the silver medal off the Kiwi on countback. The heavyweights had delivered a dose of sporting drama of the highest calibre.
‘‘There’s no doubt in my mind that’s the greatest ever competition in track and field, by all the stats that have come out of it,’’ says Walsh. ‘‘If you go back stats wise and compare all of them to the world record, the great 1500s and so forth, that one kinda blows them out of the water.
‘‘You forget about Romani. He would have broken the championships record if the other three of us weren’t there.
‘‘For three of us to be 22.90 on the nose pretty much is crazy, mate. It was great fun to be part of and disappointing to be on the wrong end of it.’’
Bittersweet, for sure. Walsh recalled being in a daze for the next 12 hours, digesting what had unfolded. He smiled for the cameras and enjoyed the camaraderie of the big boppers in celebration mode, but barely noticed the bronze medal draped round his neck.
‘‘Then I jumped on a plane to come home and that’s when I started feeling pissed off about it. It was great to be part of and I wouldn’t change anything about the way I went about the competition. I wouldn’t have done anything different.
‘‘That’s why people are enjoying men’s shot put right now,’’ adds Walsh. ‘‘You’re looking at Joe, Ryan, Romani, Darrell [Hill] and myself . . . any of us can throw over 22.50 which means when you go watch it’s a total war and any of the top five guys can win and that makes it bloody exciting.’’
Walsh appreciates that he was 1cm from close to the perfect year after defending his Diamond League crown in Brussels with an outstanding 22.30m to shade Romani and Crouser and become the first male to claim back-toback titles
‘‘I would have liked to have thrown a PB slightly earlier than I did,’’ he reflects. ‘‘I was in PB shape, just didn’t manage to line anything up till the world champs, which is obviously the time you want to do it. Apart from that I was pretty happy with 90 per cent of my comps.’’
You wonder if that Doha defeat has ‘‘re-energised’’ him for the twin challenges that loom in 2020 in the form of the world indoors in China in March and then the Olympics in Tokyo (July 24-August 9).
Walsh just smiles. He’s not at the point yet where he needs to be re-energised. He’s in the midst of a heavy strength block right now which will run through the holiday period, but understands that’s work that needs to be done before he can start the intricate business of throwing a long way again.
The Olympics – and some unfinished business – loom as the holy grail in 2020, but Walsh isn’t thinking beyond the world indoors in Nanjing (March 13-15) at this stage. It’s a competition he loves and which loves him. He has his sights on a title threepeat.
The early peak means his domestic campaign will take on added importance. He will compete in the Potts Classic in Napier (January 25), the Porritt Classic in Hamilton (February 15) and the national champs in Christchurch (March 6-8) before jumping on the plane to China.
Ultimately the Olympics beckon as the final box in his career to be ticked. Nearly four years ago in Rio he came away with bronze on debut at the Games, and it rankled just a little.
‘‘It wasn’t a bad day but it also wasn’t the day it could have been,’’ he notes. ‘‘I’ve matured as an athlete since then and learnt a lot more about how to throw far and how to throw far when it matters. The gold is definitely the big goal.’’
As is that 23cm for the world record. You wouldn’t believe where he will get it from.
‘‘It’s very similar to the guys in the 100m,’’ explains Walsh. ‘‘They accelerate until about 60m, then it’s who slows down the least. That’s what we’ve figured out in our throwing. If we can keep accelerating the ball for .001sec longer, then that’s a good thing.’’
It’s there. He just knows it. ‘‘When I throw really well there is an absolute belief I can make that ball fly and that comes from consistency of training over a long period. It’s what I managed for pretty much 12 months leading into Doha. There were no bad niggles.
‘‘Those are the two big things and when I get them right, I feel like I’m unstoppable. It didn’t quite happen in Doha but I got bloody close. Maybe none of us throw that well again, but maybe we all do. You have to think we’re going to.’’