Bronze ‘bitter’ for Walsh
New Zealand athletics star Tom Walsh says his bronze medal left him ‘‘with a little bit of a bitter taste’’ after breaking – and then losing – the world championships record in the greatest shot put event in history.
Walsh, the defending champion, shattered the 32-year-old championship mark with a 22.90m throw in Doha yesterday.
He registered five consecutive no-throws thereafter as American rival Joe Kovacs (22.91m) overhauled him in the final round – and Olympic champion Ryan
‘‘It’s my best competition all year, in terms of attacking every throw and going close to nailing exactly what I wanted.’’
Tom Walsh
Crouser also recorded 22.90 to beat Walsh to silver on a countback.
Just 1cm separated the three medallists with the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) hailing the shot put super-heavyweights’ duel as ‘‘undoubtedly the best contest of all time’’.
Walsh – the Rio Olympics bronze medallist behind Crouser and Kovacs – lost out to Crouser in Doha because of his no-throws.
‘‘I am very happy with my throws,’’ Walsh said. ‘‘I don’t think they were the perfect throws, but they really deserved it. I still can’t quite believe it.’’
The 27-year-old builder from Timaru quipped he ‘‘didn’t lay [the gauntlet] far enough’’ with his first throw, but he was ‘‘really happy’’ with his performance.
‘‘It’s my best competition all year, in terms of attacking every throw and going close to nailing exactly what I wanted.’’
But Walsh admitted he was left ‘‘with a little bit of bitter taste in my mouth at not quite getting the gold’’.
Despite watching Kovacs snatch the lead, Walsh remained confident till the end.
‘‘I do the sport to be challenged and to challenge myself,’’ he said. ‘‘I went into that last throw, walking toward it and looking forward to it, believing that I had what I needed to do it.
‘‘I didn’t quite do it, but I gave it a good nudge.’’ Kovacs, 30, the 2015 world champion, produced the thirdequal best throw of all time and screamed his delight. ‘‘Coming into this competition, I was hoping for a PR, and then I saw Ryan throwing far and the others throwing far,’’ said Kovacs, who was runnerup to Walsh at the 2017 world championships in London after a silver medal at the Rio Olympics.
‘‘I just cannot be happier to get the gold medal. This is definitely the final that made history.’’ Crouser agreed it was ‘‘an unbelievable competition with a lot of fireworks in round six’’.
‘‘Across the board it was unbelievably deep. I have never seen anything like this and
22.90m in the last round was an unbelievable throw for me.’’
Kovas, Crouser, Walsh and fourth-placed Brazilian Darlan Romani (22.53m) all bettered the world championships record of
22.23m, set by Switzerland’s Werner Gunthor in Rome in 1987.
New Zealand’s Jacko Gill finished seventh with 21.45m – just
2cm of his 21.47m personal best. The 24-year-old had a 21.41m throw in the first round by 21.47m and 20.74m. Gill had a no-throw in the fourth round, followed by
21.01m in the fifth, but finished strongly with 21.45m.