Yego keen to reclaim his lost stature

Kenya's Javelin 2015 World Champion Julius Yego at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England. [File]

The heights continue to soar high, yet the scream still sounds familiar.

When 2016 Olympic javelin silver medallist Julius Yego stands at the end of the pitch, staring up as spectators inside the world’s biggest sporting cathedrals, he boils a task of ultimate sophistication down to sheer simplicity.

It now remains to be seen if he would seek redemption ahead of the World Athletics Championships start in Budapest, Hungary, on August 19.

Yego, the pioneer of the spear in Kenya as he is known, released the javelin that sailed in the air for eternity before registering the best throw during the 2015 Beijing World Championships–days after setting the Africa record of 92.72m in Birmingham, the fourth longest throw in history.

No Kenyan had ever won a field title – or even a medal – at the World Championships, but Yego sat pretty on top of the world, having ended this streak.

Yego, who emerged as the first man to win Commonwealth Games crown in 2014, has been on a downward trend since finishing 13th at the World Athletics Championships in London in 2017 and then bowed out in the semi-finals at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia.

The performance appeared as an anti-climax for Yego, who boasts an impressive trophy cabinet. But he won bronze at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, United Kingdom, last year.

He has won the African Games, Africa Senior Championships, Commonwealth Games, World Athletics Championships, Olympic silver and some Diamond League meetings as a bonus.

He is a five-time African champion with his latest victory coming last year in Port Louis, Mauritius when he posted 79.62m.

Fans across the globe must have missed for long his signature scream.

The joy of that scream — the ecstatic feeling one gets after achieving the impossible, the sense of pride and emotion after a brilliant display— tells a lot about Yego’s struggle to excel in a field event discipline, despite coming from a region endowed with track superstars.

What with his bid to reclaim his place at the global stage.

“I have picked on well. At the moment, I do more of physical exercises. I really want to get back to the top,” he said. Yego says he’s in tiptop form after healing from a groin injury which he had seen him struggle for almost six years. But he remains unfazed by his competitors’ performances during the recent Diamond League meetings. 

Despite throwing 78.43m at the national trials on July 8, Yego picked his ticket to the World Championships gala having thrown 85.70m when he settled for bronze at the  Commonwealth Games last year.

Yego, 36, will be up against a quality field including Grenada’s and world defending champion Anderson Peters, Jakub Vadlejch of the Czech Republic, Germany’s Julian Weber, and Neeraj Chopra of India— all of whom have hit the 88-metre mark this year. 

Not bad for a boy who played football in high school before trying his hand in javelin, where he posted the 71.51m national junior record.

“I used to play football while in school. I love the sport and I am an Arsenal fan,” Yego said.

Yego used to watch videos of athletes, which helped him sharpen his technique.