Six-time champion Julius Yego bows out of continental stage in style
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Reading Time: 3min | Tue. 19.05.26. | 10:23
He says he has achieved the plan since winning bronze medal in 2010
Kenya’s 2015 world champion Julius Yego cemented his legacy in the javelin, claiming his sixth African title, and fourth in succession, as curtains closed on the African Athletics Senior championship in Ghana over the weekend.
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In what is his last competition for Team Kenya on the continent, the Rio 2016 Olympic silver medalist equalled his season’s best of 79.87m in the second round, which proved enough for gold.
Ethiopia’s Otag Ubang claimed a surprise silver with a national record of 77.60m, while South Africa’s Douw Smit took bronze with 76.00m.
His previous titles at the competition came at Porto Novo, Benin (2012), Marrakesh, Morocco (2014), Asaba, Nigeria (2018), Port Louis, Mauritius (2022) and Douala, Cameroon (2024).
He also has two African Games titles to his name, which is in 2011 (Maputo, Mozambique) and 2019 (Rabat, Morocco).
Yego is now the second most successful male athlete at the continental event, and holds the African javelin record of 92.72m from his victory in the 2015 World Athletics Championships in Beijing.
Algerian hammer thrower, Hakim Toumi, is the most accomplished athlete in the championships with seven wins.
The Kenyan equalled decathlon athlete Larbi Bourrada, of Algeria, who has six titles and holds the current African decathlon record of 8,521 points, which he set at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, where he finished fifth.
His fourth consecutive African title also saw him go joint level with race walk queen Grace Wanjiru as the most successful Kenyan athlete at the championships.
Wanjiru, who won women's race walk in the inaugural edition of the championship in 2004, went on to claim five titles, including a historic back-to-back success from 2008 to 2016.
Ahead of the championship, Yego, who admitted that he had not planned to compete in Ghana but was convinced by his coach said competing at 37 was a "great honour and historic moment", confirming this would be his last Africa event.
Yego says he has achieved what he had set out to achieve in the javelin since winning bronze medal in 2010.
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"In 2010, I was as a young man full of dreams and ambitions, learning the ropes but I am now ready for my final throw in Africa," Yego told Nation.
Yego became the first Kenyan to claim glory in javelin at the Africa Senior Athletics Championships when he won in 2012 in Porto Novo, Benin in 76.68m.
In the 2014 edition held in Marrakech, Moroco, he won in 84.72m.
He missed the 2016 Africa Senior Athletics Championships held in Durban, South Africa,with his compatriot, Alex Kiprotich, claiming bronze medal in 74.08m.
He bounced back to recapture his title at the 2018 championship held in Asaba, Nigeria, hauling 77.34m to take gold medal.
The Covid-19 pandemic led to postponement of the 2020 Africa Senior Athletics Championships, but Yego was not one to be beaten in the next two editions.
He defended his titles in the 2022 edition held in St Pierre, Mauritius with a throw of 79.62m, and again at the 2024 championship held in Doula, Cameroon, where he threw 80.24m.
This year, he opened his season with a fourth place finish at the Kip Keino Classic, the Kenyan round of the 2026 World Athletics Continental Tour Gold, throwing 79.87m at the Nyayo National Stadium.
It was his first competition since the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, where he had made his seventh appearance in the senior global track and field event.
He is the Kenyan athlete with the most appearances at the World Athletics Championships after legendary steeplechaser Ezekiel Kemboi who made eight appearances.
