John Kelly ‘touching distance’ from big Championships after new Irish record
The Finn Valley AC man could be the first Irish shot putter in 76 years to compete at the European Championships
John Kelly has moved into contention for the European Athletics Championships and a leading world athletics official says the Finn Valley AC man is within ‘touching distance’ of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
At the Cork City Sports on Tuesday evening, a World Athletics Continental Tour bronze level meet, Kelly set a new Irish shot put record.
In throwing 20.16m, his first time to throw the 7.25kg shot beyond 20m, Kelly set a new Irish best. Eric Favors, Kelly’s rival on the domestic scene in Ireland, bettered his own Irish record at the same meet when going out to 20.11m, but Kelly hit new heights with his monster throw.
“John has now put himself in the top 25 shot putters in Europe for the year and 26 will qualify for the European Championships so he is certainly in with a chance,” Pierce O’Callaghan, the head of competition management at World Athletics and noted athletics historian, told Donegal Live.
“More important for people who follow the sport closely is his progress. John is on a real upward trajectory.
“Automatic qualification for the Paris Olympics is 21.10m and John is within touching distance. John is in prime position for the European Championships this year and the World Championships next year in Budapest.
John Kelly reacts after breaking the Irish shot put record
Last month, Kelly threw a new Ulster best of 19.57m when competing in Norway and recently set a new Championship record of 19.25m in winning the Irish senior shot put crown in Santry.
Remarkably, it was the 36th Irish title the the St Johnston native has won from under-14 level all the way to seniors.
It is eight years ago since, in 2014, he threw a senior shot put for the first time, going out to 15.46m in Lifford.
He broke 18m for the first time in 2019 and, after almost 18 months out with a foot injury, he has returned in some style.
Kelly is based in Sweden, where he is coached by Vésteinn Hafsteinsson and competes with an elite group in Växjö that also includes Swedish discus thrower Daniel Ståhl, a 2019 World Championship gold medalist in Doha.
Should Kelly get a place at the European Championships, he would be the first Irish shot putter since David Guiney in 1946 to compete.
It is 30 years since Victor Costello, later an Irish rugby international, and Paul Quirke wore the Irish vest for the shot put at the 1992 Olympic Games.
“When John won the shot put at the national championships, this was the 150th consecutive championships remember, he threw the championship record,” O’Callaghan says. “That was the longest throw ever thrown at the Irish championships.
Around 120 years ago at the turn of the century, Irish throwers were the best in the world and most came from farming stock. We had a great throwing tradition and history. Martin Sheridan from Mayo was fourth in the Olympic shot put in 1904 and won it in 1906. Denis Horgan from Cork was second in 1908 and Pat McDonald from Clare won the Olympics in 1912, sadly all representing different countries.
“Since World War 2, Ireland has only sent one shot putter to a European Championships - and that was back in 1946.”
Kelly began working with his father, John senior - himself a five-time Irish champion in discus, shot put and javelin in the 1980s - and the fruits of their labour in a potato shed near their home at Carrickmore, just outside St Johnston, are now being felt.
O’Callaghan says: “John is a guy who has come up through the ranks representing Finn Valley AC and is in an event in the corner of the track which doesn’t get the visibility it should get.
“His father was a multiple Irish champion and his brother, James, is a multiple Irish champion. They’re one of the strongest athletics families in the country.”