Yego’s best throw of the season falls short of a medal at Paris Olympics
Kenya’s javelin thrower, Julius Yego. Team Kenya photo
Kenya’s javelin thrower, Julius Yego, narrowly missed out on a podium finish during the javelin finals at the 2024 Paris Olympics on Thursday night.
Despite delivering his best throw of the season at 87.72 metres, the 2016 Olympic silver medalist and self-taught “YouTube Man" finished in fifth place.
The gold medal was clinched by Pakistan's Arshad Nadeem, who threw an impressive 92.97 metres. India's reigning Olympic and World champion Neeraj Chopra secured the silver with a throw of 89.45 metres, while Grenada's Anderson Peters took home the bronze after throwing 88.54 metres. Czech Republic’s Jakub Vadlejch came in fourth, narrowly missing the bronze with a throw of 88.50 metres.
Yego started strong with an initial throw of 80.29 metres and later improved to his season-best 87.72 metres.
However, he was unable to maintain the momentum in his subsequent attempts, recording throws of 84.90 metres, 83.20 metres, and 81.50 metres in the fourth, fifth, and sixth rounds, respectively.
Despite not winning a medal, Yego’s performance was a notable improvement considering his struggles to surpass the 85-metre mark over the past year.
This was a significant step forward from his performance in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, where he was eliminated in the qualification stage.
Yego qualified for the Paris Olympics through his World Athletics rankings, despite facing challenges in his preparation, including the lack of a coach. He had previously expressed frustration over this issue but managed to deliver a commendable performance in what he announced as his fourth and final Olympic Games.
