Well, it's already been a month since you heard from me last, and it has been a good one.
Once I got back from Stockholm, which was my last comp, I had three weeks of heavy training to do - just a wee strength top‐up that will carry me through the rest of the season. Angus Ross came over for two weeks to help me with that phase - for those of you who don't know Gus, he's the guy who writes all my strength and conditioning programmes. He does a great job - well, at least I think he does, it seems to be working.
So I got through those three weeks pretty well, got back up to some good numbers in the gym, to a point where I only just missed a PB for the bench press. But the really good thing was my throwing distances didn't drop too much, even though I was a bit fatigued from the gym work.
Once Angus left my girlfriend Dana came over - I hadn't seen her seen I left New Zealand back in early May. We got to do some cool things together, went to an Atlanta Braves (baseball) game, got to see the World of Coca‐Cola, and last but definitely not the least was we got to go to the Martin Luther King Human and Civil Rights Museum. This was a really eye‐opening place, I'd highly recommend it to anyone who goes to Atlanta.
About two weeks out from the London Diamond League we started the freshening‐up programme, and that was when Dale turned up again. Going into London I was feeling pretty good. Just starting to line things up, and get my timing back, so I knew I would be in good shape. I ended up second in the comp, with a season's best of 21.54m - also
my fourth best performance ever. I was pretty pleased with that, it's certainly a step in the right direction. Consistency was good too - there were another three throws over 21m, and I didn't feel like I really got behind any of them. So when I catch one it's really gonna fly.
Last year's world champion Joe Kovacs (USA) won with 22.04 and looks in good form again this year. David Storl (former world champion from Germany) got third and has been a bit quiet this year, but is obviously coming right at the right end of the season. Also in the field were the double Olympic champion Tomas Majewski (Poland), Commonwealth champion O'Dayne Richards (Jamaica), and the two of the top Americans, Kurt Roberts and Darrell Hill, so it was a good result to notch up second in that field at this stage.
So what's on the go over the next 3‐4 weeks leading into Rio? I'm back in Athens now, where I'll spend a bit of time continuing to freshen up, and hopefully the distance will keep climbing. I'll then have one more comp in Athens on the 7th of August, which is my last hit out before the big day on the 18th.
Hopefully everyone is starting to get a bit of Olympic fever - it's not far away now.
Cheers,
Tom Walsh