Keshorn on Olympic showing: Disappointed but grateful

Disappointed but grateful.

Those were the words used by TT’s two-time Olympic medallist Keshorn Walcott to describe his seventh-place finish in the men’s javelin final at the 2024 Paris Games.

Despite leading after the first round of six throws with a season’s best 86.16-metre opening effort, Walcott could not improve his distance, and slid down the ladder as the rounds progressed.

This was his fourth Olympic Games appearance and first time he failed to win a medal after advancing to the final round. Walcott won gold in London (2012) and bronze in Rio de Janeiro four years later.

At the Tokyo Games in 2021, he did not make it to the final, and placed 16th overall.

This year, however, the Olympic record was broken by eventual gold medallist Arshad Nadeem of Pakistan with a mammoth 92.97m effort in round two. He was the only athlete to throw over the 90m mark, and did so twice, landing the spear at 91.79m on his final attempt.

Looking back on his performance, Walcott said he felt a “level of pride” after the event on August 8, but now the dust has settled, he feels displeased but still grateful.

“I know all the work I put in to get there, all the sacrifices, coming back from injury in a short time and all of those things, I felt happy. But to be honest, now, I feel disappointed – not really with the entire outcome, but who wants to be in a final and not get a medal, right?

“Seventh is not top three, and as athletes our goal is always to be with the medals...getting to an Olympic final, this is the first one I’ve gone in and left without a medal, I think now it’s kind of setting in."But, he said, "I am still grateful, because the competition was something I will always remember.”

Walcott was pleased with his opening effort and confirmed that, as an athlete, you always want to put down a good mark early so you can build on it. He knew an 86m effort would not land him among the medals and hoped to climb into the 87-88m range. But it did not come.

Walcott confirmed he didn’t have “much depth” because of his short pre-Olympic training period, and when Nadeem broke the Olympic record on his second attempt, all the other competitors had to play catch-up.

“I felt it would be impossible for me to chase down (Nadeem) until my sixth throw. I knew I needed to go out there and attack as fast as possible. Getting a good first throw was a great start, but after that, it is what it is, and competitions go like that.

"I can’t really complain. I was hoping for a metre or two better, which would have been a great performance for me. If you look back in history, 86m would have been a sure medal in any previous Olympics. But the standard and level was so high this year, going into the competition, we knew that only above 87m would earn a medal.

“When Nadeem threw 92m, you could see everyone’s faces said, ‘The competition is over.’ When it comes to javelin, you need to be relaxed and focused – you can’t go chasing other people’s marks. But everybody had to chase, and once you do that, it’s more than likely not going to happen.”

After Walcott’s second throw, which was fouled, he felt a small pull in his right hamstring. He knew it would “go downhill from there.”

He had an MRI on August 9 which showed a small tear (fingertip) in the middle of his hamstring. It requires rest to heal, and Walcott wants all the rest and relaxation he can soak in after such a battling past 12 months.

In August 2023, he injured an achilles tendon during his warm-up ahead of the World Athletics Championships, and spent the next ten months recovering from surgery. The Toco-bred athlete resumed competition in June. He had two months to prepare his body to face the globe’s best throwers on the biggest sporting stage in Paris.

Now, he said, it’s time to wind down from a nervy and hectic past year of recovery and return to the circuit.

“Physically I’m fine; mentally I’m very tired. That’s one of the biggest down parts of having an injury, fighting and fighting trying to come back. Mentally, I need a break.”

Walcott’s Olympic performance brought an end to his season.

Despite putting down the javelin for a bit, he’s already made plans for 2025. He has two targets in mind – throwing his personal best (beyond 90.16m) and capturing an elusive World Championships medal.

“I’ve asked a lot of my body in such a short time. I don’t want to risk it (continuing his season) and having to start the new season with another problem.

"I’m going to take a couple weeks and detox a little bit, let my body come off all the stress. I want to start afresh. I’ve been thinking about it and I’m going to structure the training plan a bit different going into next season, because I really want to get some big throws early in the season, like February/March.”

He wants to tackle some domestic competition in Australia early in 2025, get some early meets and big throws in, so his body reacclimatises, and push on from there.

Walcott credited coach Ismael Lopez Mastrapa and Jamaica-based TT physiotherapist Yael Jagbir for playing critical roles in keeping him in the best shape and guiding him through a successful recovery.

“I wouldn’t be where I am without Ismael, I can leave it like that. Our relationship is beyond athlete and coach, always. Without Sean (Roach) as well.

"I’m blessed to have and meet good people.

“My physio (Jagbir): I’m grateful to have that journey, through the injury, with her help.”