Keshorn prepares for May 16 Diamond League meet

TWO-TIME Olympic javelin medallist Keshorn Walcott is currently in Lisbon, Portugal, fine-tuning ahead of the Wanda Diamond League in Doha, Qatar, his first competition of the season.

Walcott arrived in Europe earlier this week and will be using the next two weeks to sharpen up ahead of the May 16 meet. The Diamond League is his only competition this month, but Walcott is expected to feature in three more European meets in June.

The Diamond League has narrowed its events recently, and javelin will only be featured across five legs.

After hosting his first-ever, six-stage track and field series – Keshorn Walcott Golden League – in TT at the end of 2024 and early 2025, Walcott is ready to return to the big stage in pursuit of precious metal.

Walcott, 32, stunned the world in 2012 with Olympic gold in London 2012, and followed up that with a bronze in Brazil in 2016.

He confirmed earlier this year that he was making some adjustments to his training regimen. He also hinted at adding new advisors to his coaching staff as he approaches the twilight of his illustrious career.

“This is my first training base and I’d be in Europe for about two months until the end of June,” he said. “I’ve had a change in technique so I’ve been working on that. The goal right now is to stay healthy, get some sort of stability in the technique and throw far. We’re not trying to rush anything because of the long season. Our goal is to fine-tune things and see how it goes.”

After his seventh-place finish at the 2024 Paris Games, Walcott eased off competition and focused on the Golden League, which provided a platform for young track and field athletes in TT to compete across six stages, giving them an opportunity to gauge their progression.

Over the past few months, Walcott also put a lot of time and effort into his latest business venture, KW Sport and Rehabilitation Centre, located on Kitchener Street in Woodbrook.

The Toco native said the elusive World Athletics Championships medal is still on his mind.

“The goal also remains to win a medal at 'Worlds', but that’s later down in the year. However, training has been going in a good direction. We just have to bring down the level, because it was a bit high. I’m just trying to prepare for the competition and we’ll see how it goes...

“My life has been a little different because from the Golden League, to the business, to trying to balance training. Everything is different from what I’m accustomed to, but just trying to stay on top of it. I’m taking things one step at a time. The last couple months have been crazy but good.”