Keshorn Walcott

Keshorn Walcott

ORTT

Keshorn Walcott at the 2012 Olympics
Personal information
Nationality	Trinidad and Tobago
Born	(1993-04-02) 2 April 1993 Toco, Trinidad and Tobago
Height	1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)
Weight	90 kg (200 lb)
Sport
Sport	Track and field
Event	Javelin throw
Achievements and titles
Personal bests	84.58 (2012) AJR NR
Medal record Olympic Games 2012 London Javelin throw World Junior Championships 2012 Barcelona Javelin throw

Keshorn "Keshie" Walcott, ORTT (born 2 April 1993) is a Trinidadian javelin thrower and the 2012 Olympic champion. He became the first black male athlete to win the gold medal in a throwing event in the history of the Olympics. His personal best of 84.58 m (277 ft 5+3⁄4 in) is the Trinidad and Tobago record. He is also the holder of the North, Central American and Caribbean junior record.

Walcott is the youngest ever Olympic gold medallist in the men's javelin (19 years 131 days), and the first athlete - in any track and field event - to win World Junior and Olympic titles in an individual event the same year.

Biography

Early life and medals

Born the third (and last) child of Beverly Walcott and Endy King, "Keshie" - as he is affectionately called - grew up playing football (soccer) and cricket, striving to keep up with his athletically talented older brother Elton. He was raised in the fishing village of Toco, in north-east Trinidad.

Walcott first picked up a javelin at age 15 and found immediate success. He was, initially, self-taught, watching clips of world-class javelin throwers on YouTube to learn technique, and then received coaching from his high school coach, John Andalcio, at Toco Secondary School. A right-handed thrower, as a youth and junior competitor (under-20), he represented Trinidad's "Rebirth Club team. A week after his 16th birthday, he represented Trinidad in the 2009 CARIFTA Games, held in Vieux Fort, Saint Lucia in early April, winning gold in the boys' under-17 javelin. Throwing the lighter (700-gram) youth javelin, his winning throw of 59.30 m (194 ft 6+1⁄2 in) was just eight centimetres short of the meet record. That earned him a trip to the World Youth Championships, held in Brixen, Italy on 11 July 2009, where he placed eighth with a throw of 66.72 m (218 ft 10+3⁄4 in).

In 2010 he stepped up to the standard regulation javelin (800-gram), and he continued his domination of the Caribbean junior division, as the three-time winner in the Junior (under-20) javelin throw at the CARIFTA Games in 2010 to 2012, setting a new NACAC North, Central American and Caribbean junior record in 2012. He won the CARIFTA Games, held in the Cayman Islands in early April, then two months later he won the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Junior Championships, in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, in early July with a throw of 67.01 m (219 ft 10 in). He was selected for the World Junior Championships, in Moncton, Canada, later that month where he threw 66.05 m (216 ft 8+1⁄4 in) and failed to reach the finals.

He crossed the 70-metre threshold (230 feet) for the first time in 2011, defending his junior title at the 2011 CARIFTA Games in Montego Bay, Jamaica in April with a throw of 72.04 m (236 ft 4 in). In mid-July 2011 he competed against senior competition for the first time at the CAC Championships in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, where he advanced to the final and placed fourth with a mark of 70.98 m (232 ft 10+1⁄4 in). He closed out his 2011 season, again at the senior-level, finishing in seventh place at the Pan American Games in Guadalajara, Mexico, in October; his performance of 75.77 m (248 ft 7 in) that was his sixth personal best of the year.

2012 World Junior Champion

He began the Olympic year in April with his fourth-consecutive victory at CARIFTA Juniors. A record throw of 77.59 m (254 ft 6+1⁄2 in) earned him the distinction of competing unbeaten throughout his CARIFTA career. This would be the first of many wins in what would prove to be a remarkable year. In late May 2012 he twice improved his personal best, breaking through the 80-metre mark (262 feet) for the first time. At the Quantum Classic, in Trinidad and Tobago he threw 78.94 m (258 ft 11+3⁄4 in), breaking Trinidad's national javelin record of 78.06 m (256 ft 1 in), set in 1996 by Kurt Thompson. It was also a NACAC junior record as well. One week later he reset all those marks, while competing at the IAAF International Centennial Meet in Havana, Cuba. He extended the records with a winning throw of 80.11 m (262 ft 9+3⁄4 in). He then returned to win the national junior competition on 3 June, securing his return to represent Trinidad in the CAC Junior and the World Junior teams. At the CAC Junior Championships, held in San Salvador, El Salvador, he won with yet another national record of 82.83 m (271 ft 9 in) (also an Olympic "A" standard). A month later at the World Junior Championships in Barcelona, Spain, he was the surprise winner with his last round toss of 78.64 m (258 ft 0 in).

2012 London Olympic Champion

Following his win at the World Junior Championships in Barcelona, Walcott headed directly to Trinidad & Tobago's Olympic training camp in Wales to prepare for the London Olympic Games. He had no expectation of winning a medal and his coach just wanted the young thrower to experience the pressure of Olympic competition, hoping this would better prepare Walcott for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, when he would be 23 years old. His goal was to throw at least 80 metres in qualifying, which - at the previous 2008 Olympics - was good enough to earn a spot amongst the top 12 throwers who would advance to the final.

In the qualifying round on Wednesday August 8th, the 44 men competing in the javelin were divided into two groups of 22, with Walcott drawn into the second group. In the first group ("A"), nine men had throws exceeding 80 meters. Walcott, throwing 5th in Group "B", opened with 78.91 and did not improve on his second throw. Facing elimination on his third (and final) throw, he reached 81.75 m (268 ft 2+1⁄2 in), which lifted him up to 10th place overall and a spot in the final. Although, he was far behind Vítezslav Veselý, who won the group in a world lead of 88.34 m (289 ft 9+3⁄4 in). Commentators postulated it would take a throw of 85 metres to earn a medal on Saturday.

Gusty winds in the stadium on Saturday evening August 11th, made conditions for the javelin throw less than ideal, and worse than during Wednesday's qualifying rounds. Walcott responded to the pressure of the Olympic finals by throwing his best-ever distance on his first throw - giving him the lead - and then exceeding that throw on his second. He won the Olympic javelin gold medal with a throw of 84.58m (277 ft 6 in). He defeated a string of top athletes to win the competition including 90-metre thrower Tero Pitkämäki and two-time defending Olympic champion Andreas Thorkildsen,, as well as Veselý, Oleksandr Pyatnytsya and Antti Ruuskanen. This made Walcott the youngest-ever Olympic champion in javelin throw and the second non-European to ever win the Olympic gold in men's javelin throw since American thrower Cy Young in Helsinki in 1952. Only Pyatnytsa, in the third round, came close to beating the 19-year old from Trinidad, falling short by only seven centimetres (three inches). It was the smallest winning margin seen at the Olympics since the introduction of the new spear design in the mid-1980s and the shortest winning throw since 1988.

Steve Backley, a former three-time Olympic medalist in the javelin remarked that it was a "surprise win for Keshorn Walcott. Everyone else struggled with the wind". In the javelin final, an event dominated by white Europeans, Walcott was one of two black men, alongside Kenya's Julius Yego, who was the first Kenyan ever to qualify for a global men's javelin final. Walcott became the first black male athlete to win an Olympic gold in any field throwing event. (At the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki the silver medal was won by Bill Miller, a black African-American graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy who was the U.S. champion that year.)

Hailed as National Hero in Trinidad

Following his Olympic victory, the humbly-born "Keshie" was hailed as a national hero in the tiny, twin-island nation of 1.3 million people. Not since their national football (soccer) club earned a trip to the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany was the nation so excited. He is only the second person from Trinidad and Tobago to win an Olympic gold medal, after Hasely Crawford. The then 26-year old Crawford was already an established sprinter when he posted the fastest time in the semi-finals and went on to win the 100 metres at the 1976 Montreal Olympics. In addition, Crawford had left the island to run and train in America (at Eastern Michigan University.) Whereas Walcott remained on the island and his victory in 2012 was an unexpected result. On 13 August, the day of his arrival back in Port of Spain, Trinidad from London was declared a national holiday so that thousands of citizens could greet him. He was awarded $150,000 in cash and given some land near his hometown of Toco, as well as a luxury home in Port of Spain. In addition, both the Toco lighthouse (in north-east Trinidad) and the Toco Secondary School were renamed in his honour.

• Trinidad had a tradition of producing some excellent sprinters (earning 3 Bronze medals at London), but Walcott was the first Trinidadian athlete ever to reach the Finals of a "field" event in any Olympic or (seniors) World championship.

• Until Walcott won gold, Trinidadian sprinter Ato Boldon was the island's most famous Olympian. Boldon was a world champion and won 4 Olympic medals (Silver and Bronze)- placing in both the 100m and 200m at both the 1996 Atlanta Games and 2000 Sydney Summer Olympics. Like Crawford, he also has a stadium named in his honour.

Walcott has been coached since 2009 by Cuban-born Ismael Lopez Mastrapa of the Sports Company of Trinidad and Tobago. Trained in the Cuban system as a hammer thrower, Mastrapa was hired to come to Trinidad in 2004 to coach throwers. Cuba has produced a number of world-class throwers, most recently Cuban javelin thrower Guillermo Martinez was ranked amongst the Top 10 throwers in the world six times between 2005-2011, reaching #3 in 2011.

The fact that Walcott chose to remain in Trinidad to train for the 2012 Olympics, rather than leaving the island to join a more established, world-class athletics program in Cuba or the United States, especially endeared him to his fellow Trinidadians. In this respect he is as admired in his nation as World and Olympic champion sprinter Usain Bolt is in Jamaica.

The javelin is not contested indoors, so Walcott - like most javelin throwers - trains all fall and winter (October through March) for the outdoor season. Being from the warm Caribbean his season often begins early, in April, before most European competitors.

Compared, physically, to other (older) elite-level throwers, Keshorn is neither particularly tall - height being an advantage - nor (unusually) strong and he relies on a "smooth, flowing" technique to impart energy when releasing the javelin. Video of the 12 throwers lined up to be introduced at the start of the Men's javelin finals in the 2012 London Olympics, reveals the 19-year old Walcott is exactly "average" when compared to the other javelin throwers in terms of height and body size (6 feet & 200 pounds / 1.83m & 90kg).

Olympic Victory Earns #5 World Ranking for 2012

At the annual, season-ending IAAF awards banquet, Walcott was named the sport's male "rising star" for 2012. The American-based monthly magazine Track & Field News calls itself "The Bible of the Sport" and at the end of each year it produces a list of the "Top 10" athletes in each event, taking into account their best times and marks that year, as well as their performance at major competitions. On the basis of his winning the London Olympics with a personal best throw, T&FN ranked Walcott #5 in 2012, behind #1 Vítězslav Veselý (Czech Republic); #2 Oleksandr Pyatnytsya (Ukraine); #3 Tero Pitkämäki (Finland); and #4 Antti Ruuskanen (Finland); and just ahead of #6 Andreas Thorkildsen (Norway).

Walcott fell out of the Top 10 rankings in 2013, replaced at #5 by Julius Yego of Kenya.

2013 to 2014

Walcott's 2013 season was hampered by injury. In his first competition since his Olympic victory nearly nine months earlier, he "opened big", nearly matching his personal best with an opening round throw of 84.39 m (276 ft 10+1⁄4 in) at a hometown meet in Hasley Crawford Stadium in Port of Spain, Trinidad, on Friday 3 May. But a week later, at the season-opening IAAF Diamond League meeting in Doha, UAE, on 10 May, Walcott sustained an ankle injury to his left ("plant") leg and finished sixth with a throw of only 79.79 m (261 ft 9+1⁄4 in). Rather than rest, he continued to train and competed at three more Diamond League meets in May and June, to his detriment, never reaching 80 metres. He was back in Trinidad for its National Championships on 22-23 June but he did not compete. By late July he was in Finland to train and "getting therapy to deal with a back injury." At the World Championships in Moscow in mid-August, he continued to struggle with his ankle injury and failed to advance to the Finals, throwing only 78.78 m (258 ft 5+1⁄2 in) (short of the 80.18 m (263 ft 1⁄2 in) needed to qualify for the final).

In an early March 2014 interview with BBC Scotland, Walcott said that after some rest his ankle "is back to normal". With no World or Olympic competitions to aim for, his 2014 season will be targeted on the 2014 Commonwealth Games, to be held in Glasgow, Scotland. He had a six-week training camp in Cuba in March and planned to compete at a few events in May 2014, before taking part in another training camp in Europe so he can adjust to Glasgow's climate. He said, "My coach likes me to get away from a lot of distractions and just focus on training and being healthy."

Competition record

Year	Competition	Venue	Position	Event	Notes
Representing Trinidad and Tobago
2009	CARIFTA Games (U17)	Vieux Fort, Saint Lucia	1st	Javelin throw (700g)	59.30 m
	World Youth Championships	Brixen, Italy	13th (q)	Javelin throw (700g)	66.72 m
2010	CARIFTA Games (U20)	George Town, Cayman Islands	1st	Javelin throw	63.41 m
	Central American and Caribbean Junior Championships (U20)	Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic	1st	Javelin throw	67.01 m
	World Junior Championships	Moncton, Canada	16th (q)	Javelin throw	66.05 m
2011	CARIFTA Games (U20)	Hamilton, Bermuda	1st	Javelin throw	72.04 m
	Central American and Caribbean Championships	Mayagüez, Puerto Rico	4th	Javelin throw	70.98 m
	Pan American Games	Guadalajara, Mexico	7th	Javelin throw	75.77 m
2012	CARIFTA Games (U20)	Hamilton, Bermuda	1st	Javelin throw	77.59 m
	Central American and Caribbean Junior Championships (U20)	San Salvador, El Salvador	1st	Javelin throw	82.83 m
	World Junior Championships	Barcelona, Spain	1st	Javelin throw	78.64 m
	Olympic Games	London, United Kingdom	1st	Javelin throw	84.58 m (NR)
2013	World Championships	Moscow, Russia	19th (q)	Javelin throw	78.78 m

Seasonal bests

• 2010 - 67.01 m (219 ft 10 in)
• 2011 - 75.77 m (248 ft 7 in)
• 2012 - 84.58 m (277 ft 5+3⁄4 in)
• 2013 - 84.39 m (276 ft 10+1⁄4 in)

See also

• Trinidad and Tobago at the 2012 Summer Olympics
• List of javelin throwers

External links

• Keshorn Walcott at World Athletics
• T&T Native Enjoys 2nd Gold in Nation's History
• Games 2012 JAVELIN Men Final; YouTube video shows Walcott in comparison to his fellow competitors in London, not simply his Gold medal winning throw.
• London 2012 - Event Report - Men's Javelin Throw Final; detailed results of London 2012 Finals.
• Walcott's Career Highlights and Honors; The National Sports Archives of Trinidad and Tobago lists the astonishing number of national awards and honors bestowed on Walcott following his 2012 Olympic victory.