media_artricles :: 2013

Keshorn Walcott: Disappointing but not disastrous 2013 season

For Olympic javelin champion Keshorn Walcott and his fans the 2013 season must have seemed a big disappointment following his results of the year before.

The magical Olympic year 2012 was indeed unrepeatable for an athlete who

• Improved the national record, set in 1996, from 78.06m to 84.58m in five stages,
• Was national champion, Carifta junior champion, CAC junior champion, World junior champion and Olympic champion,
• was undefeated in all eleven competitions at home and abroad, and
• was just nineteen years old !

In contrast, during 2013 Walcott set no records, won no titles, did not qualify for the final of the World Championships in Moscow, and was first in only one competition.

Yet the post-Olympic season was not as disastrous as might appear at first glance.

During a shortened season he exceeded 82 metres in two events (84.39m in Port of Spain early May, and 82.24m in Kuortane early August), like in 2012, and more importantly in all his seven competitions he threw over 77 metres, a distance he first attained only in April 2012.

In addition, he acquired patience when an ankle injury forced him to miss several competitions, and experience when competing under pressure abroad at the World Championships, at the Diamond League and at meetings in Finland, the home of javelin throwing.

Hopefully, In the current off season our champion will put together all that he learned in the last two seasons, improve his technique, strength and fitness, and prepare himself mentally for the next season.

Then in 2014, the year in which he turns twenty one, Keshorn Walcott just might give his friends and supporters another magical year!

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