Tom Walsh: 24 hours after historic victory

Although feeling very sore but with a great feeling Tom Walsh took his place as number one on the victory dais to receive his much deserved gold medal.

"Ive been on the podium a few times now, once with my national anthem, but this one at the outdoors its pretty special. Im not usually a teary guy but I felt like I got a bit of watery eyes there at a little part of it," said Walsh.

"And to see some Kiwis in the crowd that were singing our national anthem and just proud of what Ive achieved is pretty cool," Walsh added.

Walsh, the New Zealand team captain, said that he lead from the front.

"Im definitely one of those captains whos gone out hard and said follow me lads this is the way to do it. Maybe that was a master stroke by Scott Goodman our team leader to put me in as captain."

The adductor injury was making its presence felt as he navigated his way around the stadium for the medal ceremony.

"The groins definitely sorer than what I thought it would be, but were going to get an MRI on it tomorrow and see what the story is as it could have an impact on the rest of my European circuit."

"Obviously the big one is the end of the season the Brussels Diamond League thats the final and thats the one I want to be ready for. And if I dont compete until then thats okay, thats the way it is and I might have to cut out of a few more competitions."

"If I was to get injured and get a gold medal Id take it over getting silver and not getting injured," he added.

Walsh has been inundated with messages of congratulations and best wishes.

"There have been so many, from mates and even people that I dont know, just to know there are so many people back home that have been watching it means a lot, not only to me but also the rest of the New Zealand team."

A re-protest by Ryan Crouser over his third round throw of 22.38m that was disallowed carried on right up to the medal ceremony, to the extent that Crouser turned up ready to collect the gold medal.

"It was just before we walked out to the ceremony I heard from Dale (Stevenson) that everything was going to stay the same, the way it was, but I dont think its been handled in the right way, its a bit of a shame and it kind of brought a little bit of a downer to the guys in the medal ceremony room not knowing exactly what the story was, we had Stipe (Zunic) there, with his first ever medal at a major champs sitting in third place and he would have lost that if the protest went through, so it was a weird feeling in the medal ceremony usually its quite happy and jovial and today it was a little bit nervous."

"The re-protest was thrown out just before the medal ceremony which left us quite nervous in the medal room and the boys didnt know what to think as one guy would have gone from first to second and the last guy goes from third to fourth and doesnt get a medal at the end of the day.

"Stipe is not a man you dont want to annoy as he is a former world junior kick boxing world champion, so Crouser is a brave man to try that," said Walsh.

Walshs coach Dale Stevenson said it was a careful programme getting Walsh ready for the final.

"It has been satisfying for me and satisfying for the team. It is a huge team effort that goes on behind the scenes that extends beyond Tom and I so its nice to facilitate that for everyone and bring him on this journey," said Stevenson.

"The nature of championships is that distance almost take secondary importance to placing and sometimes, conditions dependent, 21 metres can be a winning throw and thats good enough on the day and sometimes it takes 22.50m like it did in Rio, so I guess overall we knew Tom was in shape to be in the mix and once he leaves the warm up track and steps into the call room then the ball is in his court and we dont really put a distance on it, its more just handling it out there and thats one of Toms real strengths."

"Given his injury we had to have a bit of an abbreviated warm up with the adductor mismanagement so we didnt take any throws before going into the field of play which is unusual, normally wed take some out the back to get into a rhythm. So just to manage that and talk about it and make sure he was clear enough to execute that process and just deal with the two warm up throws in the field of play was a bit of a new approach."

"We havent done that before but part of our ongoing development is putting an importance on dealing with the unknown and thats just one of those curve balls you get thrown. You can deal with it or make a big deal of it and fortunately it came out alright in the end," said Stevenson.

Stevenson will make sure that Walsh is clear to compete in the rest of the European circuit before returning to New Zealand.

"Ill make sure Toms fit and healthy to go through for the rest of the season and then weve got a quick turn-around for Commonwealth Games and world indoors next year. Now with Tom winning the world title there is the other side of the sport which is the commercial side and that takes on a bit more importance," he added.

- This story has been automatically published using a media release from Athletics New Zealand