Tom Walsh, chasing great
Tom Walsh eyes shot put’s hallowed 23-metre mark like it’s the last T-bone at the buffet. He’s hungry to devour the final frontier of his sport which, after another world-beating season, is now tantalisingly within reach.
Walsh has just ticked off a hugely satisfying 2018 campaign which started and finished blazingly well and had enough high points in between for the
26-year-old Christchurch-based Timaru athlete to score himself a ‘‘nine out of 10’’.
His season got away to an ideal start when he threw a PB (and national record) 22.31 metres to defend his world indoors crown in Birmingham in March. Then, just three weeks later, he stunned Auckland’s Waitakere track with a record-shattering heave of
22.67m – the shot that was the shot heard round the world.
From there he kept on keeping on, adding Commonwealth Games gold in Queensland, and then ticking off victories in Tucson, Oslo, Ostrava, Lausanne and Thum (Germany) before finishing with a flourish at the Diamond League final in Zurich when he threw 22.60m to underline his status as the strongman of the strongmen.
In summary, he won the triple crown of his season (world indoors, Comm Games and Diamond League), had the two biggest throws of the year (22.67 and 22.60m), and three of the top four (22.45m in qualifying on the Gold Coast, without breaking a sweat), and continued to hold an ascendancy over Olympic champion Ryan Crouser that must be tying the American in knots.
Given the above, and that he was able to find the consistency he was striving for (seven victories included throws of 22m-plus), Walsh gave himself that near perfect score.
‘‘There were a few meets in the middle where I had some technical issues to straighten up, but I won everything I wanted to win. All in all I can’t be unhappy,’’ he told Stuff.
‘‘I don’t think it’s going to get much better than this. Not much has gone wrong this year. There are always the ‘if onlys’, and I know I’ve got improvements I can still make to get some more distance out there.’’
All of which brings us to the threshold upon which he now stands. Walsh is already into special territory. His 22.67m should for all intents and purposes be the world record, as the best throw of the last 15 years. It is the equal seventh best distance of all time and makes him the equal sixth best thrower in history.
Walsh now believes it is only a matter of time before he, and one or two of his rivals, are bursting through the 23m mark and leaving most of their suspect predecessors in their dust. From there that world record (23.12m) of banned drugs cheat Randy Barnes will be inevitable.
‘‘I think it is achievable,’’ said Walsh of the 23m threshold.
‘‘You’re always learning. In my last couple of competitions I was trying too much and when I’m thinking about it too much, I need to speed things up. There are always bits and pieces you can improve on.’’
Walsh admitted to a small bit of frustration he wasn’t able to improve on his March super throw but rated his Zurich Diamond League victory his best of the year.
‘‘Any time you get to stick it to the Americans is a good day,’’ he added with a grin. ‘‘I felt I had the world indoors won in the first round . . . but coming back and answering with a big throw in the Diamond League final and beating the best shot put field ever assembled – you had 5th with 21.87 – that was real sweet.’’
His plans now are simple. There’s a 10-day holiday in Fiji with girlfriend Dana (‘‘believe it or not, I’m actually looking forward to another trip’’), family and friends to catch up with, some work around the house requiring the trusty tool-belt and some golf.
‘‘I love my job, I really do,’’ he declares. ‘‘What’s changed is why I do it. When I started many years ago I did it because people said I couldn’t, and I wanted to prove them wrong. Now I am making a good living travelling the world and throwing steel balls.
‘‘But I do love chasing the perfect throw and when I get it, it’s like a drug – it feels amazing. That’s the type of drug I’m chasing after and trying to get more often.’’