Olympic medalist visits West Limerick AC to train ahead of Tokyo World Championships

West Limerick AC had a very special visitor recently when world renowned shot-putter Tony Walsh stopped by to train ahead of the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo. 

READ MORE: Limerick senior football championship groups begin to take shape 

Walsh has a number of accolades to his name in the world of shot-put including gold, silver and bronze medals at the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, the World Championships and the World Indoor Championships.

As well as breaking multiple shot-put records both at home and abroad, Walsh was also named New Zealand's Sportsperson of the year in 2017 and 2018.

Tom Galvin, who has been involved in West Limerick AC both as a juvenile and as a coach for nearly 50 years, explains how the two-time Olympic medalist ended up visiting west Limerick. 

"Tom and his wife were attending a wedding in Adare and a few weeks ago and he put it out via social media to a few of his friends that are in the shot-put world that he was in Ireland."

"The message went out that Tom was going to be in Limerick and that he was looking for a base to do a bit of training, some of his friends messaged him saying that the Limerick Regional Athletics Hub would be ideal for what he was looking for."

The two-time new Zealand Sportsperson of the Year spent two days in the Regional Athletics Hub as Walsh prepares for the upcoming World Championships. 

"He was with us for two days, he was doing some serious work as he's preparing for the World Championships in Tokyo next month.

"He's actually still recovering from an injury he picked up at the Paris Olympics, it was a rather nasty injury but he's recovering well and he's progressing very well from that injury.

"He has a very serious programme that he follows, an athlete of his calibre has a routine that he must stick to but the actual going out, doing some of the throws is very important.

"It's vital that you're fine-tuning your progress and that's how the Regional Athletics Hub came into that part of his training." 

Mr Galvin says that seeing someone of Tom Walsh's stature in Newcastle West was 'awe-inspiring.'

"As a coach now myself, it's like looking at the end result of years and years of putting hard work into something. Success doesn't come easy, it's a plan, it's taking the good with the bad and for me personally, this facility is only something we dreamed about years ago.

"To have it there and to have the opportunity to find the next generation and to have someone like Tom Walsh stand in the same circle where only weeks ago there was a 12 or 13-year-old standing in the Limerick County Championships, you can only imagine what it does for the likes of me as a coach and the club as a whole," he said. 

"It was awe-inspiring to be honest with you, it was like a fairytale." 

As well as being a world class athlete, Mr Galvin says that Tom was a 'gentleman' to deal with over the course of his few days in west Limerick. 

"He's a very proud new Zealander, he's a fantastic ambassador for New Zealand and he is a credit to his country. He's an absolute gentleman who is so driven and so focused," he said. 

"All you have to do is look at what he has won but he's just a really nice guy, he's one of the good guys as they say," Mr Galvin concluded.