New Zealand shot put athletes Tom Walsh and Dame Valerie Adams. Photo / Photosport
New Zealand shot put athletes Tom Walsh and Dame Valerie Adams. Photo / Photosport
Kiwi shot put star Tom Walsh has revealed his competitive relationship with fellow shot putter Dame Valerie Adams, admitting to a "bit of tension" between the pair.
Walsh and Adams recently trained together in Christchurch in preparation for upcoming competitions, including the Olympic Games in Tokyo later in the month.
Speaking to Newstalk ZB, Walsh said it had been good to have Adams training alongside him, despite the odd clash of heads.
"There's some egos in the room, that's for sure," Walsh said. "We do actually get on really well, but like any training partners, to see each other every day for four hours there's going to be a little bit of tension. It's all good; it's healthy tension.
"It's been really good to have Val down with us. There are two alphas in the room and there has been times for sure where we've clashed heads and stuff like that, but it has been really good to compete with someone of Val's character, and it's good for her self-belief as well and good for me to see her doing well again in Stockholm. She's on the right path going into Tokyo as well as I am."
New Zealand shot put athletes Tom Walsh and Dame Valerie Adams. Photo / Photosport
Both Walsh and Adams have been at the top of the podium in recent events as they build into the Olympics. Adams claimed the Diamond League win in Stockholm with a throw of 19.28m earlier in the week, while Walsh won the Gyulai Istvan Memorial in Hungary with a season-best effort of 22.22m this morning.
That effort from Walsh would have been good enough for the gold medal at many Olympic Games, with several won by throws below the 22m mark. At the most recent Games in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, American Ryan Crouser took the gold with a throw of 22.52m while Walsh took home the bronze medal with his 21.36m effort.
Crouser has since cracked the 23m barrier and beaten to beat Randy Barnes' 31-year-old record, a challenge Walsh said he was ready for come Tokyo.
"It's not too long ago that I threw 22.90m in the first round at the World Champs and everyone goes 'well, Tom's won that' and what proceeded to happen was I got third," Walsh recalled.
"I think there's two or three of us who are capable of throwing a distance required to win. Whether Ryan throws even further again, who knows? But we can do that too. I think he's the type of thrower who can throw up and around his PB every time, it's just the way he throws.
"It's not that cut and dry - [Ryan] would like to think it is. But I'm definitely not going to Tokyo to get second."
