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E-mail Xinhua, July 18, 2024
At 35, Kenyan javelin star Julius Yego is on his last run of a career that saw him shoot to global fame at the 2015 World Championships held at the iconic Bird's Nest Stadium in the Chinese capital of Beijing.
Yego, then 24, had learned his craft on social media platform YouTube and stunned the world with a monster throw of 92.72 meters to win gold, cementing his place in history as the first African global champion in the field event.
That mark still stands as the African record nine years later.
A year later, another huge throw of 88.24 meters was enough to win him Olympic silver at the Rio 2016 Summer Games in Brazil, but he was forced to retire from competition after his second effort with a bad knee injury.
Since then, Yego has struggled to replicate his form as one of the world's top Javelin throwers, but that has not stopped him from winning a record five African titles, the latest this year when he threw 81.74 m for gold in Accra, Ghana, on March 22.
Although the mark was not enough to earn a direct qualification for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, Yego nonetheless is fine-tuning his final preparations in the French southern city of Miramas, having earned his slot for the Summer Games as a continental champion.
Having failed to progress from the second round qualifier at the last Olympics in Tokyo and the preliminary round in last year's World Championships in Budapest, Yego is, however, keen on making what will be his last Summer Games a memorable swan song.
Speaking earlier this week after landing in the southern French city of Miramas, which is Team Kenya's official pre-Olympics camp, Yego is once again plotting to overcome the odds and land what would be a stunning return to the podium.
"The place is really nice; it has everything for training, especially javelin. It's the best place before the Olympics," Yego said in a recent interview shared by Team Kenya media.
However, Yego is yet again facing the challenge of having to plough a lone furrow as the only men's javelin athlete for his nation at the Olympics, meaning there is no specialist coach accompanying him to France.
Olympics Kenya, however, has sourced a French coach to take him through his paces as he prepares for his third Summer Games before the track and field program starts on August 2.
"It's difficult to train Javelin without someone to correct you. Sometimes it is very difficult, especially when you are going to a big competition like this, but yeah, there is a French coach here, and there is a problem with the language, and I'm trying to see how it goes," Yego said.
"We have a translator sometimes, but it's difficult. It's better when you have someone who directly speaks to you. But then, the rest will take care of itself, and what God has planned for me will be mine," the 2014 Commonwealth Games champion added.
The explosion of Yego on the world map in China was viewed as an inspiration that Kenya could become a force in field athletics, but much to his disappointment, the East African nation continues to focus more on its established dominance in distance running.
The situation has, however, not deterred the burly athlete from soldiering on in pursuit of one last throw that will cement his status as one of the most formidable javelin throwers in history.
"Professional careers have stages, just like a circle; you start and it will come to an end, but on the way there are ups and downs, so we navigate through those challenges and use them as stepping stones as we celebrate successes," he said.
