Walsh wins 11th national crown

Much has changed in earthquake-ravaged Christchurch over the last decade but some things remain consistent.

As the track and field nationals returned to the city for the first time in 10 years, Tom Walsh was still winning the shot put.

Walsh, the reigning world and indoor champion, hurled a best of 21.70 metres to win his 10th consecutive national shot put title in overcast and cold conditions at Nga¯ Puna Wai Sports Hub in Christchurch last night.

Walsh, the Olympic bronze medallist from Rio and current Commonwealth Games champion, beat fellow Kiwi Jacko Gill and Konrad Bukowiecki, of Poland, to win his 10th title on the bounce.

Walsh, fresh from winning the Lincoln University Street Athletics Festival on Wednesday night with a throw of 21.01m, was predictably a class above his rivals on the opening day of the national track and field championships.

The 21.70m mark was short of his personal best of 22.67 set in Auckland last year but with the major international competitions still a few months off it is a satisfactory start to 2019.

Walsh effectively ended the national championship as a contest with an opening effort of 21.52m but he did not better than mark until the fifth round and then threw 21.63m in his final attempt.

Last night’s victory was Walsh’s 11th national title following his 2013 victory in the discus.

Walsh, who won the Supreme Halberg Award and the New Zealand Sportsman of the Year gongs at the 56th Halberg Awards last month, has been passionate about the return of the national championships to his adopted home town.

Walsh, born and raised in Timaru but based in Christchurch for most of the last decade, was handed the honour – at last year’s The Big Shot – of announcing the track and field championships returning to Christchurch in 2019 and 2020.

Meanwhile, Edward Osei-Nketia, the 17-year-old son of New Zealand record holder Gus Nketia, is the national 100 metre champion.

The teenage sensation stopped the clock at 10.64 seconds last night.

Osei-Nketia, a pupil at Scots College in Wellington, beat home Jordan Bolland and Hamish Gill in a closer than expected contest. Osei-Nketia has a personal best of 10.30sec. Commonwealth Games representative Joseph Millar was a late withdrawal, understood to be because of illness, and will not contest today’s 200m heats or tomorrow’s final.

Earlier, Osei-Nketia won his heat in 10.74sec.

Defending champion Zoe Hobbs was a comfortable winner in the women’s 100m final in 11.61sec.

She beat home Olivia Eaton and Brooke Somerfield.

In January, Hobbs lowered Michelle Seymour’s New Zealand residents record on home soil, set in 1994, of 11.52sec when she won at the Capital Classic meeting in 11.42sec.

Later in January, she lowered the mark again to 11.37sec at the Potts Classic.