Shot Bro: Taking A Look At Tom Walsh’s Post-Olympic Rise
You could have been forgiven for thinking after the 2016 Olympics that the sport of men’s shot put was set to be dominated by Ryan Crouser for the foreseeable future. Two events outta Rio though and the former World Youth Champion Crouser has been beaten twice and who is it that has proved the American’s nemesis? Mate, that’d be Tommy Walsh.
Coming into the final event of the Diamond League season, it was all well poised for Walshy. Having set two personal bests in edging Crouser by a single centimetre in Paris last week, he entered the final DL event in Zurich knowing that he would win the overall race if he could finish ahead of Olympic silver medallist Joe Kovacs again. Crouser was a non-factor in the Diamond Race having not really bothered with it before Rio but he was the fella to beat on the day. So two big targets there, enormous targets in fact.
The first one was probably the simpler one. He didn’t even necessarily have to beat Kovacs, as long as the American didn’t win, then finishing within one spot would ensure that Kovacs didn’t overhaul Tommy’s four point lead. Kurt Roberts in third, also of the USA, was too far behind to catch Walsh, even with the double points on offer. That’s the difference that a centimetre can make to things in this sport, if you want the story of his 22.00m victory in Paris then check this bad boy out for all the dirty deets.
Again, it was a strong field of competitors. Being the final, being worth double points and being compulsory if you want to win the thing (even if only two men could), it meant all the big fellas were there. A week ago the top five placers at the Olympics were all there in Paris. This time you can extend that all the way to number seven, with a couple other Olympians in there too. The only bloke who wasn’t in Rio was Kurt Roberts, who happens to be one of the better guys on the tour but he missed out on Rio due to the strength of the American programme. Roberts hurled a 20.99 with his first attempt to set himself in at second place.
In first was Ryan Crouser, funnily enough. The golden boy began with 21.45m where as Walshy was back in fourth with 20.73. The kiwi fixed that up with his second go in the circle when he catapulted a 21.12m attempt. Both Walsh and Crouser well within their best through the first couple.
Roberts never topped his 20.99m throw and would slip to fourth in the end. Joe Kovacs started slow and although, with the exception of a fouled third attempt, he improved with every subsequent throw, his best on the day of 21.20m was only enough for third meaning that his hopes of winning the Diamond Race quickly slipped away.
The reason for that was because for his third distance, Tom Walsh, 24 years old hailing from Timaru, stepped up and did this:
22.20m, on the dot.
Jeez, Tom. A week ago your personal best was 21.62 and in the space of two competitions it has been beaten three times and extended by 58 centimetres. More than half a metre! It’s the second longest distance of 2016, trailing only Crouser’s Rio-winning length.
You could expect Crouser to improve on Paris but he only did so by 1cm, meaning he equalled what Tommy did a week ago with 22m exactly and fell comfortably short of what Tommy did here in Zurich. Neither of them came close to 22m again in their final couple throws.
Tom Walsh: "I thought I was actually in better shape than what I threw in Rio and I felt like I still had something to prove. Anyone who knows me well knows I'm a competitive bugger and I never like to lose ... so I felt like I had something to prove and I knew I had more in the tank as well. So it's been great these last two or three comps, things have lined up really well."
And so with that, there’ll be a sexy new trophy adorning the Walsh family mantelpiece. He claims his first ever Diamond Race championship, which also makes him the second kiwi to have won one of those after the indomitable Valerie Adams, of course. She’s on the clock in Brussels next Thursday morning (NZT) pretty much only needing to turn up and try for her to win her fifth Diamond Race trophy. Walsh also gets his third DL event win of the season and the fourth of his career. There is a reward kitty of NZ$14k for each of those wins and NZ$55k for the overall Race championship so it looks like those travel costs are being covered by the winnings, good to know.
DiamondLeague.com: “It was just the second time in the past 27 years that two men had thrown 22 metres or more in the same outdoor competition. Walsh now moves to equal 17th on the world all-time list, tied with no less a pair of luminaries as two-time world champion David Storl and three-time world champion John Godina.”
It’s crazy how well he’s doing now, this soon after the Olympics. At the time it felt like the 22.52m that Crouser threw to win that thing was way out of Walsh’s league, meaning that there wasn’t any real reason to be upset at missing gold there. Would’ve been unrealistic. But now after beating Crouser twice in a row, this time pretty comfortably, that doesn’t seem to be the case even just a month later – although that Olympic record throw of Crouser is still 32cm beyond Walsh’s best. Having said that, a week ago it was 90cm beyond his best.
As for the scrap for second, Joe Kovacs and his 21.78m also at the time felt like it was out of Walsh’s range. It was further than his old PB, at least. Showing the form he has since puts that into a different perspective though and it’s tempting to wonder if he should maybe have been running Kovacs a little closer that day.
Tom Walsh (to RNZ): "It is a little bittersweet ... but then if you had told me two-and-a-half years ago I would be in this position I would have told you, you were crazy. So sometimes you have got to just look back and see where you've come from and realise how good you have actually got it."
Still, you can’t change the past now can ya? Not without a souped-up DeLorean anyway and it’s much better to celebrate not only that Olympic bronze medal for the superb achievement that it was, but also this incredible effort since then. Because right now, on this trajectory, there’s a proper one-outs going on within men’s shot put. Let’s not overlook that in between these two Diamond League meets, Tommy popped by Poland to compete at the Skolimowska Memorial in Warsaw, where even on an off day he managed to come through to beat local hero Tomasz Majewski (in his final competitive event) with a 21.48m throw with his sixth attempt. That was a keep-busy event though (he’s got two more before his season ends). This was the prize that counted: