Kenya’s world javelin champion Julius Yego says he is in no mood to challenge for the Diamond League title in the season-closing meeting in Brussels on Friday after his world championship win.
Ranked first in the world in the men’s javelin throw with 1385 points, Yego currently occupies fourth spot in the Diamond League race behind former world champion Vitezslav Vesely, Finland’s Tero Pitkamaki and reigning Olympic champion Keshorn Walcott of Trinidad and Tobago.
“For me, I achieved what I had set out to do this year. I won the world championship gold medal in Beijing, there is nothing else left,” the 26-year-old, who became the first Kenyan athlete to win a field event at the Worlds, told AFP.
“In any case there is no chance of me catching up and overhauling Vesely.”
Apart from winning the world title, Yego, who famously taught himself javelin by watching videos on Youtube, has enjoyed the most convincing of campaigns this season with two firsts and two second place finishes.
In Birmingham, he set an African record and a world leading 91.39m to reel in Vesely. Yego’s throw, which had been initially been ruled to have fallen outside the sector, was confirmed not only as a Diamond League record but also the best in the world since 2006.
