Tom Walsh wins fourth World Indoor Athletics Championships shot put gold

Tom Walsh has defended his World Indoor Athletics Championships shot put title in Poland.

The 34 year-old securing gold before his final throw, which turned out to be his best, hitting 21.82m.

“My goal for today was to throw 22m and win a medal,” Walsh said.

“I didn’t quite get to 22 but I won gold so it is pretty good. I was glad I was able to build things up as the competition went on.”

Walsh was the oldest man in the field and took a while to get going.

For four rounds Jordan Geist of the United States occupied first place thanks to an opening round throw of 21.64m.

Walsh took the lead in round five by two centimetres with an effort of 21.66m. 

Geist fouled again with the last throw of the round, and could only manage 21.36m next time round to leave Walsh as champion once again.

"My whole career started in Poland with bronze at the 2014 World Indoors in Sopot,” Walsh said.

“If you told me then that I would still be here winning medals at every edition since then I would tell you you were dreaming.”

Walsh is the first man to win seven medals at the World Athletics Indoor Championships.

The burly former builder has four golds – from 2016, 2018, 2025 and 2026 – a silver in 2024 and bronzes from 2022 and 2014.

Walsh also has two Olympic bronze medals, an outdoor World Championship gold and bronze, and two Commonwealth Games gold medals and a silver which he’ll attempt to add to in Glasgow this year.