Tom Walsh has shown he is still throwing close to his best, finishing fourth at the Rome Diamond League with a season-best heave that left him agonisingly short of the podium. The Canterbury shot putter unloaded 21.49 metres with his final attempt at the Pietro Mennea Golden Gala, missing third place by a single centimetre in one of the deepest fields the event has seen this year.
For a 34-year-old who has been at the top of the sport for more than a decade, the throw was a reminder that he remains a genuine medal threat heading into a busy northern summer. It also continued an upward trend in his form. A week earlier he had managed 21.24 metres at the Rabat meeting in Morocco, so Rome represented his best mark of the outdoor season so far and a sign that the big man is building nicely.
The win went to home favourite Leonardo Fabbri, who delighted the Italian crowd with a throw of 22.14 metres. American pair Joe Kovacs and Ryan Crouser took second and third, with Crouser pipping Walsh for the final podium spot by that solitary centimetre. Crouser, the Olympic champion and world-record holder, is the standard every shot putter in the world is chasing, so to push him to the wire on his return to form says plenty about where Walsh is at. RNZ reported that Walsh left the podium spot to the very last round, fighting all the way to the end of a competition stacked with the best in the business.
It is worth remembering just how rare a talent New Zealand has in Walsh. He is the 2017 world champion, a two-time Olympic bronze medallist from Rio in 2016 and Tokyo in 2020, and the holder of the New Zealand record of 22.90 metres, set in Doha in October 2019. That throw still ranks among the longest in history. He has also been the most consistent indoor performer of his generation, claiming a fourth world indoor title earlier this year and extending a run of medals at the global indoor championships that stretches back a decade.
Few throwers have managed to stay near the front of the field for so long. The shot put is a brutal event on the body, demanding explosive power through the shoulders, back and legs, and most athletes fade well before their mid-thirties. Walsh has kept reinventing himself, tinkering with his technique and his training to squeeze more distance out of every throw. After his latest indoor title he made a point of saying that age would not hold him back, and his results this year are backing up the talk.
The fourth place in Rome carries a little extra meaning because of the company he is keeping. Fabbri has emerged as one of the most dangerous throwers in the world, while Kovacs and Crouser have shared the major titles between them for years. To finish within a centimetre of that trio, on a night when all of them were throwing well, suggests Walsh can mix it with anyone when it counts. In a one-off final, where a single big throw can decide everything, that is exactly the kind of form he wants.
The timing matters too. Walsh has the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow on the horizon later this year, where he will be chasing a third straight Commonwealth gold after his victories at the Gold Coast in 2018 and Birmingham in 2022. A hat-trick of titles would put him in rare territory and cement his status as one of the most decorated athletes the country has produced. He is part of a strong New Zealand contingent heading to Scotland, with the team building towards what shapes as a memorable Games.
Before that, there is more competition to come on the European circuit. Walsh is due to throw at the Golden Spike meeting in Ostrava in the Czech Republic in around 10 days, another chance to sharpen up against quality opposition and to keep nudging his season-best mark north. The Diamond League series rewards consistency across the year, and Walsh has long been one of its most reliable competitors, so the points he is collecting now keep him in the hunt for a finals berth.
For New Zealand sport fans, there is plenty to like in the way the season is unfolding. Walsh is throwing further with each meeting, he is healthy, and he is clearly motivated by the challenges ahead. The man from Timaru who once juggled his athletics career with work as a builder has become one of the most enduring figures in New Zealand sport, and he shows no sign of wanting to step away while he can still launch the shot more than 21 metres against the best in the world.
A centimetre is a cruel margin in any sport, but Walsh will know there is far more to take from Rome than there is to regret. The form is there, the body is holding up, and the big targets are still in front of him. You can read more on his Rome performance via RNZ Sport and his career record at World Athletics.
Do you think Tom Walsh can win a third Commonwealth title in Glasgow, and where does he rank among New Zealand’s greatest ever athletes? Share your thoughts in the comments below, we would love to hear from you.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job 🙂
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