Walsh throws huge for title
Tom Walsh has won the world indoor championships shot put final with an emphatic performance – and collected on a zany bet with his coach.
The Kiwi star threw 22.13m twice in the early rounds and then, with the title in the bag, came up with a massive 22.31m on his final attempt, setting championship, Oceania and New Zealand records.
The personal best gold medal performance means Walsh’s coach, Dale Stevenson, will be sporting muttonchop sideburns after losing a wager to New Zealand’s Sportsman of the Year.
It was a fierce contest in the English city of Birmingham yesterday, with seven athletes throwing over 21m, the most in an indoor shot put competition.
New Zealand’s other leading medal hope at the championships, pole vaulter Eliza McCartney, produced a season’s best performance but narrowly missed a medal.
The 21-year-old Rio Olympic Games bronze medallist cleared 4.75m – her best-ever indoor effort – but had to settle for fourth place.
Walsh’s throw, just two days after his 26th birthday, added 0.10m to his NZ and Oceania record and was 0.07m further than the previous championship record of 22.24set by East German Ulf Timmermann 31 years ago in 1987.
The victory means Walsh has won the last three world shot put titles contested – the 2016 Indoor, 2017 Outdoor and 2018 Indoor Championships, proving his temperament at the major championships, and will head into the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games as hot favourite.
‘‘I came here to win but I knew that I would have to throw well to beat these guys,’’ Walsh told Athletics Weekly.
‘‘It was a crazy competition but I finished with a boom.
‘‘The last 20 minutes was awesome with the crowd so close and they pushed me to throw far.’’
Walsh said his first goal at Birmingham was to win the gold medal, ‘‘but to get a Games record is something pretty special’’.
‘‘Winning is why I do it and to defend my title against such a strong field is such an awesome feeling.’’
It also enabled Walsh to win his wager with Stevenson.
‘‘We had a bet that if I PB-ed and won, he had to either grow muttonchops for nine months or have a tattoo on his foot.
‘‘And, of course, I PB-ed and won, so he will have muttonchops for the next nine months.’’
Walsh said he lost a bet to Stevenson at last year’s world championships in London, ‘‘and that was a tattoo on my foot’’.
He was sure his Australianborn coach would ‘‘pay up on his bet’’.