Rob Walker: “I used to be born to do commentary” (from the RBR Archives, Glasgow 2024)

I acquired a be aware from our readers relating to the standard of the worldwide commentary. Hannah England and Rob Walker are doing nearly all the classes. I believed that our readers would possibly get pleasure from this piece on Rob Walker by Deji Ogeyingbo from Glasgow 2024. Please get pleasure from! (Sure, we will likely be doing a chunk on Hannah England.) 

Rob Walker is likely one of the main commentators in World Athletics occasions. Within the Olympics, Rob Walker anchors most evenings on the eleven days of the worldwide broadcast! Rob Walker is an excellent announcer, nicely revered for his candor and his information. We thought you would possibly wish to be taught extra about him, on this nicely accomplished piece by Deji Ogeyingbo from the World Indoor Champs from March 2024. 

That is Deji Ogeyingbo’s interview with Rob Walker. Rob Walker is a commentator for the ages and has spent the final 3 days commentating on each second of the World Championships. In your editor’s thoughts, Rob Walker has been a commentator for ages. In Doha 2019, I used to be sick one night time and listened to Rob do World Athletics Radio. He captured the Males’s excessive leap, the place 40,000 Qataris screamed for Mutaz Essa Barshim. It was a second for me (I all the time suggest WA Radio for individuals who cannot watch the WA Champs).

Rob Walker is an amazingly gifted commentator, and sure, he was born to do commentary!

Rob Walker: “I used to be born to do commentary”

A talented athletics commentator can brighten up the dullest of monitor meets and improve the viewing expertise when the on-field motion is entertaining. Rob Walker is adept at capturing the temper of a world championship and transmitting it to these watching alongside at residence.

The British Commentator has made a reputation for himself because the voice many stay up for listening to on the Athletics and Snooker international championships.

Walker began as a broadcaster in his early years till his breakthrough got here in 2007 when he took the prospect to go to the World Championships in Osaka to take the lead for Commentary. At that time, he knew he didn’t wish to be within the combined zone; he was born to run Commentary.

“All the time be ready”. That’s his go-to mantra with regards to getting it proper. We caught up with him on the World Indoor Championships in Glasgow, and he has this to say about a few of his greatest moments.

Deji: What has been your best-ever World Championships?

Rob: That’s so troublesome. All of them have a novel attraction. I’ll always remember my first World Athletes Championship in Helsinki in 2005 as a result of I first fell in love with athletics watching Helsinki in 83 once I was 8 years previous, and it was pouring rain in Helsinki. There have been some good performances from nice athletes, in order that’s a particular one, however I additionally suppose Budapest final summer time was off the size. How we had been made to really feel welcome by the folks of Hungary, the profile, and the significance they connected to internet hosting the occasion was unbelievable. Due to this fact, the standard of the athletes and the tales unfolded on these sweaty and balmy nights had been phenomenal. It was the perfect version of the World Athletes Competitors I’ve labored on, and I’ve accomplished 10.  It was the perfect of the lot.

Deji: Was your favourite piece of commentary at an occasion ever?

Rob: That’s such a troublesome one to reply, however I believe it was Karsten Warholm who decimated the World Report in Tokyo 2021; I noticed Kyron McMaster breaking the Commonwealth Video games document, Santos breaking the South American document, and giving us a sign of why he’ll turn into the worldwide champion in Eugene the next yr. That males’s hurdles, though there was hardly anybody there, was very particular, as was the final occasion of Budapest 23 when Femke Bol, having fallen en path to what ought to have been gold for the Dutch within the combined 4x400m on the primary night time, received the gold for the Dutch Quartet actually on the road with a push for the tape. You couldn’t have scripted a greater finish to the perfect version of the world athletics championships we’ve ever had. It was superior.

Deji: The boys’s 100-meter ultimate on the Olympics or the lads’s 10,000 on the Olympics?

Rob: It is going to be 10,000 as a result of I do know the lads’s 100-meter on the Olympics is a very iconic second as a result of it marks the quickest human being on earth at that second, and there are various folks on earth. I simply suppose the way in which the momentum irresistibly constructed within the 10,000m is essentially the most intense sporting drama for women and men. You simply can’t beat 10,000. It’s completely unbelievable.

Deji: Any piece of commentary that you simply really feel or remorse not having accomplished in your years of commentating?

Rob: earlier than I began as a commentator, Haile Gebrselassie was in opposition to Tergat within the ultimate of the lads’s 10,000 in Sydney; that race was so shut that even if you happen to watch it now on YouTube 24 years later, you’ll nonetheless suppose Haile Gebrselassie was going to win. It was such an awesome rivalry. They’d an exceptional method of respect between the 2 iconic figures, and I believe that’s the most incredible race over 10,000 meters I’ve ever seen. Nonetheless, it was earlier than my time as a commentator, so I watched it as a substitute of engaged on it.

Deji: Throughout your time as a commentator, which second do you suppose you’ll have accomplished justice to?

Rob: I believe Kipchoge’s successful back-to-back golds within the marathon so lengthy after getting a medal on the monitor in 2004 and 2008 was unbelievable. Additionally, Bolt doubled in Berlin in 2009. I bear in mind not being the lead commentator on the 100m- the 9.58s as I co-commentated. When the race was on, the lead commentator, Peter Matthew (who sadly has handed away), I bear in mind taking my headphones off and taking a second to savor the sight of somebody working like that. I bear in mind even pondering I used to be undecided I’d ever dwell lengthy sufficient to see a human being faster than that with the bare eye. After which, in a blink, the race was over, and I put my headphones again. There are such a lot of moments. One second has but to occur, and I sincerely hope she does it in Paris as a result of I believe it’s coming. I’d like to see Shericka Jackson turn into the Olympic champion for the 200m, and I believe for her to take action, she should break Flo-Jo’s Information. It’s been coming, and he or she’s been getting nearer. If she has an injury-free buildup to Paris, it would finally be her final time.

Deji: What second do you wish to touch upon in Paris?

Rob: The Girls’s 800m. If we’ve got Athing Mu, Mary Moora, and Keely Hodgkinson all match, I believe that will likely be an iconic race. I additionally stay up for the lads’s marathon with a heavy coronary heart. I believed Kelvin Kiptum would break 2 hours on April 14 at Rotterdam, and I believed he could be the favourite to beat Kipchoge in Paris. Nonetheless, I nonetheless suppose the Kipchoge second may be huge as a result of he may have the emotion of realizing Kiptum just isn’t on his workforce. Nonetheless, relying on how he runs in Tokyo this weekend, I believe he would do one thing no man or lady ever does once more. Three marathon golds within the Olympics again to again will likely be unbelievable. Abebe Bikila and Waldemar Cierpinski have accomplished two; Kipchoge has accomplished two, however to be the primary and solely to do three in a row over the marathon, the space was so nice that it may go flawed so lengthy after he received medals on the monitor. 2004 and 2008 could be a second that may go down in historical past, so the lads’s marathon could be very particular however will likely be modified to disappointment as a result of Kelvin Kiptum received’t be there.