Julius Yego

Julius Yego
Personal information
Born January 4, 1989
Height 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)
Weight 85 kg (187 lb)
Sport
Country  Kenya
Sport Athletics
Event(s) Javelin
Coached by Petteri Piironen[1]
Updated on 11 August 2012.

Julius Kiplagat Yego (born 4 January 1989) is a Kenyan track and field athlete who competes in the javelin throw. He is the Kenyan record holder for the event with a personal best of 85.40 metres. He was third at the 2010 African Championships in Athletics and became the first Kenyan to win the javelin title at the All-Africa Games in 2011.

Biography

Yego was born in Cheptonon (Saba River) location in Tinderet, Nandi District.[2]

Yego became interested in the javelin throw as a youth and he watched videos of athletes such as Jan Zelezny and Andreas Thorkildsen on YouTube to help with his technique.[3][4] He competed in the high school regional championships in 2003. In 2006 he won the national junior title and broke the Kenyan junior record with a throw of 67 metres. More renowned for distance runners, Yego quickly ascended to the top of the Kenyan scene.[4] He won his first national title in the javelin at the age of nineteen in 2008 and defended it in both 2009 and 2010.[5]

He earned his first national call up in 2010 and threw a personal best of 74.51 m to take the bronze medal at the 2010 African Championships in Athletics, which was held in Nairobi.[6] He improved his best to 75.44 m at the Kenyan Commonwealth trials.[7] He travelled to New Delhi for the 2010 Commonwealth Games, but performed less well and ended the competition in seventh place with a best throw of 69.60 m. In 2011 he still did not have a throwing coach, due to the lack of popularity of the event in Kenya. Despite this, he won a fourth straight Kenyan title then went to the 2011 All-Africa Games and became Kenya's first ever champion in the event, throwing a Kenyan national record mark of 78.34 m.[3] This bettered Paul Lagat's fourteen-year-old national record (78.20 m). In respect of this achievement the IAAF (the sport's governing body) gave Yego a six-month scholarship to train alongside elite javelin coaches in Europe, with the aim of preparing him for the 2012 London Olympics.[8]

After two months of training at the IAAF-accredited centre in Kuortane, Finland, Yego returned to Kenya in April 2012 and threw a new record of 79.95 m. This was within the Olympic "B" standard for the event and gained him the prospect of becoming the first Kenyan person to compete in the javelin at the Olympics.[9] He improved the Kenyan record at Finnish Elite Games Series event in Kuortane on July 22, 2012, Finland throwing 81.12 metres [10] During the London 2012 Olympics qualifying round, he broke his own national record by 69 cm, to make it 81.81m. That throw was enough to send him into the final. In 2014, Yego won the 2014 Commonwealth Games, beating 2012 Olympic Javelin champion, Keshorn Walcott, throwing a distance of 83.87m.[11] Yego was the first Kenyan athlete to win a Commonwealth title in a non-track event.[12]

International competition record

Year Competition Venue Position Notes
Representing  Kenya
2010 African Championships Nairobi, Kenya 3rd 74.51 m
Commonwealth Games New Delhi, India 7th 69.60 m
2011 All-Africa Games Maputo, Mozambique 1st 78.34 m (NR)
2012 African Championships Porto Novo, Benin 1st 76.68 m
Olympic Games London, United Kingdom 12th 77.15 m
2013 World Championships Moscow, Russia 4th 85.40 m (NR)
2014 Commonwealth Games Glasgow, United Kingdom 1st 83.87 m
African Championships Marrakech, Morocco 1st 84.72 m

Seasonal bests by year

References

  1. ↑ Landells, Steve (18 September 2014). "Finnish advice is the secret to African javelin throwers' success". International Association of Athletics Federations. Retrieved 15 September 2014.
  2. ↑ Daily Nation, August 9, 2012: Yego throws himself into global limelight with historic hurl
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Makori, Elias (2011-09-17). Rare medals for Kenya as curtain falls on 10th All Africa Games. IAAF. Retrieved on 2011-09-17.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 JTM TALK WITH JULIUS YEGO, KENYAN JAVELIN THROWER. Javelin Thrower Magazine (2012-04-24). Retrieved on 2012-05-03.
  5. ↑ Julius Yego. Tilastopaja. Retrieved on 2012-05-03.
  6. ↑ Omogbeja, Yomi (2010-08-02). Kenya overtakes Nigeria, Uganda grabs first gold as African Championships ends in Nairobi. Athletics Africa. Retrieved on 2012-05-03.
  7. ↑ Mutuota, Mutwiri (2010). Commonwealth Games trials fail to spark. The Standard. Retrieved on 2012-05-03.
  8. ↑ Njuguna, William (2011-12-06). Kenya: Yego Lands IAAF Scholarship to Train in Sweden. The Star. Retrieved on 2012-05-03.
  9. ↑ Mutuota, Mutwiri (2012-04-17). Distance runners upstaged by a javelin thrower in Kenya!. IAAF. Retrieved on 2012-05-03.
  10. ↑ IAAF, July 22, 2012 Pitkämäki reaches season's best 84.90m, Torneus breaks Swedish Long Jump record in Kuortane
  11. ↑ http://results.glasgow2014.com/event/athletics/atm053101/mens_javelin_throw_final.html
  12. ↑ "Julius Yego defies injury to win historic javelin gold in Glasgow". Athletics Weekly. 3 August 2014. Retrieved 3 August 2014.

External links