In Paris

Kenya’s former world javelin champion and Olympic silver medallist Julius Yego Tuesday joked that he might have to postpone his retirement following a fresh lease of life that saw him hurl automatic qualification distance to coast into Thursday night’s final at the Stade de France.

The 2015 World champion and 2016 Olympic silver medallist has been struggling for form, and after he made it to the final with his third throw of Tuesday morning’s qualifying rounds, he breathed a sigh of relief and was besides himself with joy.

With the automatic qualification standard set at 84 metres, the policeman hurled the implement to a distance of 85.97 metres after his previous two attempts landed at 78.84m and 80.76m.

Yego’s 85.97m, the sixth-best throw of the qualification round, handed him the direct ticket to Thursday night’s final (8.25pm, local time, or 9.25pm, Kenyan time) where he will be up against a legion of 11 other stars including Czech Republic’s European champion Jakub Vadlejch (85.63 on Tuesday), Grenada’s two-time world champion Anderson Peters (88.63) and Trinidad’s 2012 Olympic champion Keshorn Walcott, who is through as one of the best losers with a mark of 83.02.

India’s reigning Olympic and World champion, Neeraj Chopra, had the best throw of 89.34m followed by Peters’ 88.63 and Pakistan’s Arshad Nadem (86.59).

“Let’s hope on Thursday I will have a better throw. I had a good feeling in the warm-up before we got to the stadium and I knew that I would have a good throw.

“I really needed that… I feel now the body is ready to throw the javelin again. I just need to take it easy, get the technique right and it will be even bigger,” Yego noted, saying his automatic qualification was a huge burden off his shoulders.