PARIS 2024: Julius Yego targets historic Javelin triumph as Faith Kipyegon battles in 1500m semifinals

In 2004 Kenyan javelin thrower Julius Yego was an ambitious 15-year old Form Two student at Kapsabet High School eager to chart a pathway to javelin stardom.

Yego had just started practising the sport seriously after impressing his schoolmates during an inter-house athletics competition in which he won the event by a margin of 20 metres.

Later that year, when he watched the Norwegian Andreas Thorkildsen and the legendary Czech Jan Zelesny competing in the sport at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, Yego found something greater to aspire to – becoming an Olympic champion.

The 2012 London Olympic Games came too soon for him as he was still a budding athlete in the sport. However, the competition ended with a silver lining as he managed to reach the final and even though he finished 11^th, he left the British capital having set a new national record and cemented his reputation as a force to reckon with in future.

His moment almost arrived in 2016. At that year’s Rio Olympic Games, Yego came close to a gold medal in the event but an ankle injury prevented him from improving on his 88.24-metre throw (launched on his first attempt) which remained unbeatable until the German Thomas Rohler surpassed with a throw of 90.30 metres on his penultimate attempt to snatch the gold medal from the hopeful Kenyan.

Five years later at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, Yego was unable to replicate his performance from Brazil following a season interrupted with injuries and the inconveniences of the Covid-19 pandemic. On that occasion in the Japanese capital, Yego, failed to make the final, finishing 24^th overall.

Now 35 years old and competing in his fourth Olympics Games, Yego has another chance to chase the dream Olympic moment that lit the fire in his belly when he was a teenager.

Tonight at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, Paris, Yego will aim to make it third time lucky as he competes in his third javelin final.

Yego made the final after having thrown the fifth-best distance among the 12 finalists during qualifying, a phase that required the athletes to throw at least 84 metres or be among the 12 best performers in order to reach the final.

The Kenyan was far from meeting that criterion with his first two throws, which though were promising; they were not good enough to qualify him. His first throw was 78.84 metres which he improved on when he got a second opportunity to make amends by throwing 80.76 metres. His third and final attempt got the job done, as he threw 85.97 metres.

Looking at the line-up for the event’s final which starts at 9:35 pm EAT, the nationalities of the finalists justify comments shared by Yego during a recent interview with The Eastleigh Voice.

In the interview, Yego hailed the global spread of javelin over the last 12 years which has seen non-European athletes making it to the medal podium in each of the last four Olympic Games, something which, before London 2012, had last been witnessed in Munich 1972.

“That we currently see ‘non-javelin’ nations claiming victories at major championships and pushing super Europeans out of the top ranks is evidence that javelin has undergone tremendous transformation. Javelin has expanded in talent tapping and this is good for the sport. It is now difficult to predict the next Olympic champion because athletes from African, Asia, and Caribbean countries are also top contenders,” Yego told The Eastleigh Voice in the interview.

This year’s javelin final will have, including Yego, six non-European athletes competing for the gold medal.

There is a high chance of a non-European javelin thrower making the medal podium yet again as the five of the best six performers, including Yego, during qualifying are athletes from India (Neeraj Chopra, who is the reigning world and Olympic champion), Grenada (Anderson Peters), Pakistan (Arshad Nadeem, silver medalist at the 2023 World Athletics Championships held in Budapest, Hungary), and Brazil (Luiz Mauricio da Silva).

Keshorn Walcott of Trinidad and Tobago, who won the gold medal in the event at London 2012, is the sixth non-European in the final.

Other finalists are Julian Weber (Germany), Jakub Vadlejch (Czech Republic), Adrian Mardare (Moldova), and the Finnish trio of Toni Keranen, Oliver Helander, and Lassi Etelatalo.

Thursday’s athletics program will also see the double Olympic champion in the women’s 1 500 metres, Faith Kipyegon, return to the track to compete in the event’s semifinal as she pursues her aim of becoming the first athlete to win three consecutive Olympic gold medals in the event.

Kipyegon, who won silver in the women’s 5 000 metres final on Monday, will race in the first semifinal together with compatriot Nelly Chepchirchir. The race will start at 8:35 pm EAT.

Kenya’s other representative in that event, Sharon Ejore, will compete in the second semifinal which starts at 8:47 pm EAT.

In order to make the final of the event, an athlete has to finish in the top six positions of their semifinal race.

Also in action today on Stade de France purple track is Koitatoi Kidali who will feature in the Repechage Round of the men’s 800 metres.

After failing to finish in the top three positions in his Round One heat on Wednesday, Kidali gets a second chance today to make it to the semifinal of the men’s 800 metres.

The Repechage Round will feature four heats and athletes will be scrambling for six semifinal slots. Athletes who win their races will qualify for the semifinal automatically. The remaining two slots will go to the two athletes with the fastest times.

Kidali will be running in the second heat race which will start at 1:08 pm EAT.