TOKYO2025: Resilient Yego refuses to bow despite injury setbacks
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Reading Time: 3min | Fri. 19.09.25. | 13:59
The Olympic silver medalist was looking to get back on the global podium 10 years after his world title
Former javelin world champion (2015) Julius Yego’s bid for a medal at the Tokyo World Athletics Championships ended prematurely when he suffered an ankle injury during the final.
Yego has been in good form this season, after struggling with injuries since winning silver at the Rio Olympics.
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He ended a nine-year wait for a Diamond League victory following a triumphant performance at Silesia, Poland, on Saturday, 16 August, producing a then-season’s best throw of 83.60 m on his third and final attempt to clinch the title.
The victory marked his first win in the series since the 2016 Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon.
Yego started with a 76.58 m throw in the first attempt, then recorded 85.54 m in the second attempt before limping out to receive medical attention, a third attempt proving impossible as he bowed out with a sixth-place finish.
He had qualified for the final after an impressive season’s best of 85.96 m.
“Disappointed not to get a medal, as I was feeling really well here, but it is part of the sport. I will take time away to recover fully before beginning my pre-season preparations. I have to check the extent of the injury, and I am hoping it is not serious, as I didn’t force it.
I hope it is a small one that can heal fast and let me return to training. The pain is less than what I felt in Rio (when he threw for an Olympic silver), and that gives me hope,” Yego told the media after withdrawing from what was his seventh world championship.
Yego was looking to reclaim the title, a decade after unleashing what remains his best throw of 92.72 m to stun the world.
His 2025 campaign began in Doha, where he threw 78.52 m for ninth.
A 74.71 m throw at the Kip Keino Classic in Nairobi had Yego searching deep for that winning momentum, a feat he achieved with back-to-back victories in Finland (82.95 m) and Turku Continental meet (83.08 m).
He stayed on the 80m mark in his next competition at the Paris DL with 80.26m for sixth, before taking silver with an 84.51m throw at the Neeraj Chopra Classic in India, behind Chopra’s 86.18m.
His win in Silesia was next before staying on form for an 80.50 m fifth-place finish in Brussels.
At the Zurich final, he threw 82.01 m for fifth.
“I am excited about the season. I could be disappointed about not finishing the World Championships, but the results I have managed this season have been good. I was really looking forward to culminating that good performance with a medal in Tokyo, but I accept my fate and look forward,” he concluded.
Meanwhile, Trinidad and Tobago’s Keshorn Walcott made a wondrous return to the top of a global podium by winning his first world title, 13 years after becoming an Olympic champion.
Having made history back at the 2012 Games by becoming the youngest ever winner of an Olympic men’s javelin title, the 32-year-old Walcott became one of the oldest ever winners of a men’s javelin title at the World Championships.
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