Walsh not panicking over a lack of success

Shot putter Tom Walsh admits his build-up to the Olympics hasn’t been ideal, but he’s not panicking.

The two-time Olympic bronze medallist, 32, is back at his North American base in Georgia putting in the hard yards seven weeks out from his event in Paris.

Since leaving New Zealand in May, Walsh has competed in four international meetings in the US and Europe, making the podium just once and having a best throw of 21.33 metres.

That was well below his best of 22.90m set in 2019.

“It’s definitely not as good as I would have liked to have thrown,” Walsh told RNZ

“There’s not anything massively wrong, just a few tweaks here and there.”

The former World Champion and Commonwealth Games winner said he was not about to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

“It’s about having faith, I can sure as hell dig myself a massive hole mentally and physically, but it’s just about playing around with one or two things.

“This is not my first rodeo, everyone is obviously excited about Olympics and wanting to throw well but if I beat myself up too much over the next month then I won’t be in a good place to put my hand up for a medal, hopefully gold, when the time comes.”

Walsh’s last throw over 22 metres when he finished second at the World Indoor Championships in Glasgow in March.

However he said things were going well in the gym and in training in the circle, which was encouraging.

“The numbers in the gym are really good.

“Some of my speed numbers are good too, like my ten metre sprint is down under two seconds which is really good, so it’s not all bad.

“Even though I get judged on results in competition, it’s one part of the puzzle and the rest of the puzzle is going pretty well.”

Ryan Crouser continues to dominate the sport and Walsh has his work cut out to challenge him and fellow American Joe Kovacs.

Crouser won in Tokyo with a throw of 23.30m and since then he’s claimed the 2022 and 2023 World Championship titles.

The men’s shot put qualifying is on 2 August with the final on the 3 August.

Walsh heads back to Europe in early July and will compete at three meetings before the Olympics.

Jacko Gill was the other New Zealand male competing in Paris, while Maddi Wesche will compete in the women’s event.