Walsh takes a shot at history
Tom Walsh doesn’t do intimidated. Which is just as well as he takes his shot at history at the athletics world championships tonight.
Walsh was named captain of the Kiwi team of 12 lining up for the championships at London’s Olympic Stadium. He will kick things off with qualifying (9pm tonight NZT) which should be a formality for a man who has broken the 22-metre barrier on his last two outings (22.04m and 22.06m), and is the third best thrower in the world in 2017.
The 25-year-old Christchurchbased Timaru athlete is bidding to become New Zealand’s first male medallist at the world champs (Valerie Adams and Beatrice Faumuina are the only Kiwi podium finishers previously), as well as to improve on his fourthplace finish at the last global meet in Beijing in 2015. put set to be a two-horse race between Olympic gold medallist Ryan Crouser and compatriot and defending world champ Joe Kovacs.
Together they own the eight best winning throws of 2017, and have been tossing the sort of bombs that Walsh, for now, can only dream of.
Crouser, a 2.03m, 141kg behemoth, has a best throw for the year of 22.65m but has blasted past 22.20m seven times as he has won all eight of his major events in 2017 to ride a 10-meet win streak overall.
Kovacs, a shorter but equally powerful 134kg, has a best for the year of 22.57m (set in Tucson in May) and has also cracked the 22.20m mark on three occasions.
All very intimidating. Unless you’re Tom Walsh and you’re beetling away to your own tune and getting better and better with
"When I line things up a few people may be changing their tune about me." Tom Walsh
every outing as you nudge your optimum distances up over that 22m mark.
Crouser, who some are deeming unbeatable in the discipline, has toppled Walsh the last five times they’ve matched up. But the Kiwi is adamant his positive mindset has not been eroded, nor has he been caught up chasing the giant American’s tail.
‘‘I was chasing him a little bit earlier this year, then I came to realise that wasn’t working for me,’’ said Walsh who was the last man to defeat Crouser in Zurich last September. ‘‘It’s what I was doing when Jacko was doing really well [in the age-grades]. I was chasing him. That didn’t work then, and it sure as hell isn’t working now.
‘‘I came to that realisation, and refocused myself on myself. That was important and has made a huge difference ... I can’t compete with Ryan at his game; I can only compete at my own.’’
Where Crouser and Kovacs are power merchants, muscling the 6kg sphere out to those absurd distances, the more compact Walsh is a self-confessed speed and rhythm thrower. He needs to generate velocity through his footwork in the circle and feel that transfer of power when the timing is on.
After a quality buildup period at his training base in Athens, Georgia, Walsh is quietly confident. He has moved his schedule forward a couple of weeks to counter what he perceived was a late peak last year (post-rio), and has posted the sort of results in training and the gym that feed his natural belief.
‘‘I’ve got all this extra horsepower, and everything is starting to line up really well. I’m going out to win it, no doubt about that. I’m throwing better than I ever have before at this time of the year and in this type of shape. When I line things up a few people may be changing their tune about me.’’
Auckland’s Gill will be the other Kiwi in the field and though his PB of 21.01m is well short of the big boppers, a top-eight finish would be a good result.
Also lining up tonight will be Hamilton hammer thrower Julia Ratcliffe who will have to be up around her national record of 70.75m to push for a spot in the final.