Gill has shot at top
If you have enjoyed Tom Walsh’s rise to the top of the world in shot put, hang on to your hats because he could soon be about to get some Kiwi company.
Athletics New Zealand high performance manager Scott Goodman, in wrapping up his team’s world championships effort, has dropped a prediction bombshell in tagging 22-year-old Aucklander Jacko Gill as poised for the breakthrough to the top tier of global men’s shot put.
Gill has long held promise as a potential major championship medallist after a stellar junior career that saw him claim two world titles and own a bevy of global age-group records.
But the transition, as it often is out of the learner pool and into the deep end, has been a difficult one for the Aucklander, and thus far he has struggled to make the step from pretender to contender.
Gill finished ninth at the justcompleted world championships in London, with a best throw of 20.82 metres, which matched his final position in Rio last year (20.50m). He has only managed to improve his PB by 31cm (20.70m to 21.01m) from 2014 to 2017.
But Goodman saw something in London that suggests it might not be much longer before Gill is nipping at the heels of Walsh and American heavyweights Ryan Crouser and Joe Kovacs.
‘‘I was very pleased with how Jacko went about things,’’ said Goodman from London. ‘‘In terms of placing it was the same as Rio last year, but his actual performances were better. I really think he is about to break through into that top 5-6 in the world.
‘‘Jacko and [pole vaulter] Eliza [McCartney] both spent a few months in Europe and we wanted to see how they would manage that. It’s been a wonderful thing for Jacko. He competed more, trained over here with his coach Kirsten Hellier for a month, and we think he nailed some things to do with his routine. There are some really positive indications he’ll now move up to another level.’’
Overall the Kiwi team fell just short of High Performance Sport NZ’s target for the championships set at one medal, one other top-five finish and two other top-eights.
Walsh delivered the medal, with his memorable gold, but McCartney’s Achilles problems, which probably cost her a top-three finish, effectively scuppered any shot at the HPSNZ objective.
Veteran 1500m runner Nick Willis was the next best Kiwi with a credible eighth, while McCartney and Gill both had ninths and road walker Quentin Rew was 12th in the 50k.
‘‘I’d hope HPSNZ will be OK with how we’ve tracked,’’ said Goodman. ‘‘Certainly with Valerie [Adams] still in the background, and Eliza carrying a slight injury where she had to modify a few things (but still came within a whisker of grabbing bronze), I’m comfortable we’re on track for Tokyo.
‘‘If I was going to give a mark out of 10, probably 6 or 7. Our good competitors from Rio generally have backed up well. The challenge for us is the group below. How do we support them to transition to be capable of top-16? That’s a work in progress.’’
Goodman was comfortable with Willis looking to target the 5000m for next year’s Commonwealth Games, before reassessing for Tokyo. ‘‘With someone his age it’s not uncommon for him to look at the next distance up, but it’s not locked in yet. He still finished eighth in the world (in the 1500m) on the back of a truncated buildup.’’
The high performance boss also believes Rew has top-eight potential. ‘‘The challenge is to figure out can he go an extra couple of minutes faster for the first 10-15k and really put himself up into that top bracket?’’
Of the rest, hammer thrower Julia Ratcliffe, distance merchant Camille Buscomb and javelin thrower Ben Langton-Burnell look to have the most upside.
Says Goodman: ‘‘Julia, in an event where the new era of drug testing has had an impact, has the attitude to maybe break through to top-12 by Tokyo; Camille is already looking at the group 5-10 in front of her and how she can start to beat them; and Ben has some attributes we’re keen on.’’
He labelled the world champs ‘‘the best’’ he had been to but admitted the retirement of the iconic Usain Bolt and distance great Mo Farah (from the track) would be felt. ‘‘It is tough to replace those personalities, but it’s happened before and will happen again.’’
And the drugs challenges? ‘‘There’s a lot of work still to be done with cleaning out some countries that still don’t test vigilantly. Athletics is still right in the middle of the cleanout that cycling probably went through 10-15 years ago.’’