Julius Yego speaks after missing Tokyo Olympics javelin final
Kenya's Julius Yego competes in the men's javelin throw qualification during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at the Olympic Stadium in Tokyo on August 4, 2021.
What you need to know:
- Yego failed to register a legal throw in his first two attempts at the Olympic Stadium in Tokyo, setting himself for a nerve wrecking third attempt in his bid to hit the automatic mark of 83.50metres.
- His third throw of 77.34m locked him out of the Games where he had hoped to improve on his silver medal from the Rio Olympics.
In Tokyo
Former world javelin champion and Olympic silver medalist Julius Yego blamed a niggling biceps injury after failing to make the final of the Tokyo Olympics on Wednesday.
Yego failed to register a legal throw in his first two attempts at the Olympic Stadium in Tokyo, setting himself for a nerve wrecking third attempt in his bid to hit the automatic mark of 83.50metres.
His third throw of 77.34m locked him out of the Games where he had hoped to improve on his silver medal from the Rio Olympics.
"I'm happy I competed at all today because I have a biceps injury which has really been disturbing me and yesterday I didn't know I would compete at all," said Yego, the 2015 world champion.
Yego, who has had a troubled season plagued by injuries, withdrew as Team Kenya's overall captain just before the Tokyo Games, citing frustrations from the officials after they failed to let him train under his coach at the team's Kasarani bubble.
"It's unfortunate I didn't have a coach to correct me and that's why the first two throws went off! You could see the other competitors were being corrected by their coaches.
In javelin a coach is very important, but when I raise these issues they say I'm fighting the as administration..."
"I will wait to see what my doctor says, but it's the end of the season and I will take some rest."
"I haven't competed all season and I've been out for long. My first competition was the trials. It's been difficult that's why I say I'm even lucky to have competed here at all."
The qualifying round also claimed the scalp of former Olympic champion Kershon Walcott from Trinidad and Tobago.
Germany's Julian Weber was the first to qualify in the group, with a clean 84.41m in his first attempt, with Pakistan's Arshad Nadeem throwing 85.16m to also make the final in his second attempt.
The Pakistani had seen his first attempt fall short of the automatic qualifying mark after throwing 78.50m.
Jakub Vadlejch saved his best for the last, holding his nerve to hit 84.93m to make the final.
The javelin competitors had been drawn in two qualification groups and Yego’s Group ‘B’ started throwing off from 10.35am local time (4.35am Kenyan time).
