Paris 2024: Why Julius Yego is not retiring anytime soon

Julius Yego. [AFP]

Former world champion Julius Yego is not retiring anytime soon if his performance at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games is anything to go by.

The 2016 silver medallist had hinted at calling a day on his javelin career after this year's event, but following his impressive season’s best throw of 87.72m that earned him a fifth place finish in the final at the Stade de France on Thursday night, the 35 year old Kenyan athlete feels he still has some more gas in his tank.

Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem was crowned the champion with an Olympic Record of 92.97m that left the entire stadium stunned. Neeraj Chopra of India finished second with a season best of 89.45m ahead of Anderson Peters of Grenada (88.54m) and  Jakub Vadlejch of Czech Republic (88.50m).

This was Yego’s third final in his fourth Olympics appearance, with his best outing being at the 2016 Rio Games where he clinched silver with a throw of 88.24m.

On his way to the final, ‘Mr YouTube’, who has endured  a torrid time this season, pulled off a massive throw of 85.97m in the qualifiers.

“If I continue throwing 87m, I will keep on going. After what I did today, a couple of 83s and 84s, the gas is still in the tank, so I will continue competing. I will try and see if I can go a little further after today's throw,” said Yego.

“I'm really happy for the Paris Olympics because I wanted to compete at a high level, and that's exactly what I have done. I have achieved my target, I had a silver in Rio 2016 and it was 88m, but if I was to do the same distance today, I couldn't have won a medal.”

He continued: “In these finals, you need to throw 90m to get a medal and you saw today, a very tough competition. But I think I enjoyed it, the best ever in my career. You know somebody with 88.50m not even getting a bronze medal, it's crazy, and that shows the competition was really high.

“I don't think I had any other throw better than that today. That's what I did, and yeah, I'm going home a happy man. I think I should go and celebrate with my family considering the last few months have been tough for me.”

But the outspoken Yego leapt on athletes’ defence following criticism on their performance at the Games asking the government and concerned authorities to embrace technology and strongly invest in sports.

“I receive a lot of complains back home about our performance,  but I think we need to appreciate where we have reached,” said Yego.

“We should ask ourselves, where is the problem? The problem is not the athletes but the supporting and coaching system.

“Everything has changed in sports. The training has changed same to the approach to competitions and coaching. We need to change our selves.

“If we continue like that we will lose it, and you can see from the results we are getting from this Olympics, there’s a big difference. But I don’t want to talk further, if I do, it becomes an issue. “

He added: “When I got injured, the treatment took toll on me and drained me financially. If the athletes will have the support system, they will be able to compete well at the high level. 

“For example, when Chopra came into the limelight India fully invested into him, you can see they are even using the technology they took from Germany. It's just about infrastructure and the development of the sport.”

Paris Olympic Javelin Results 

Arshad Nadeem (Pakistan ), 92.97m

Neeraj Chopra (India), 89.45m

Anderson Peters (Grenada), 88.54m

Jakub Vadlejch (Czech Republic), 88.50m

Julius Yego (Kenya), 87.72m