Athletics: Why Tom Walsh is using home athletics events to put pressure on himself ahead of international season

Shot putter Tom Walsh continues to improve during his stint on home soil. Photo / Photosport

Tom Walsh is trying to put pressure on himself as he looks to get in a position to contend for another World Championship title later this year.

Not since 2017 has the Kiwi shot putter won the World Athletics Championships, with a bronze in 2019 and a fourth-placed finish in 2022. In both of those events, American duo Ryan Crouser and Joe Kovacs filled the top two steps on the podium; as was the case when Walsh claimed bronze at the Tokyo Olympics, while Brazilian Darlan Romani dethroned Walsh at the World Indoor Championships last year.

In preparing for the international season ahead, Walsh is competing on the local circuit and has been taking a unique approach to trying to get the best out of his performances.

“Something that we’re working on is actually trying to apply more pressure to myself so these early comps mean more than just showing up and going ‘let’s see how far I can throw’,” Walsh told Newstalk ZB after Friday’s Capital Classic meeting in Wellington.

“The whole team was telling me ‘if you don’t throw 21.50m today, it’s going to be a failure’ to just to try and build that expectation, build that pressure on myself, and I didn’t handle it that well.

“That’s what we’re kind of using these meets early on [for], but I’m happy with how I was moving in the circle, just wasn’t getting it into the ball.”

Walsh took out the event in Wellington with a throw of 21.21m, bettering his previous meet record and surpassing his 21.09m throw from last week’s event in Whanganui.

The 30-year-old said it was good to be back throwing on home soil, and that he had enjoyed being able to compete in front of a crowd again.

“I like putting on a show,” Walsh said.

“That’s the one thing I realised around Covid was that I missed that. We’re here to entertain people and not just put a stick in the ground and measure it and that’s it.”

Walsh will now turn his attention to improving once more at a meet in Christchurch in two weeks, before returning to Wellington for the National Championships at the end of the month.

He said between now and then, it was a matter of slowly progressing.

“Get better in competitions lining those balls up and getting the power through them is really kind of the next steps,” he said.

“Hopefully in Christchurch, I can do better. I know I will be in better shape, so I should be able to do better technically as well.”