MIRAMAS, France, Jul 17 – In the wake of an injury which appeared to jeopardized his season’s fortunes, ‘YouTube Athlete’ Julius Yego now says he is healthy, strong and bursting with energy as Paris Summer Games beckon.
Speaking during the ongoing Team Kenya pre-Olympics training in the French’s speepy town of Miramas, Yego told Capital Sport that he feels composed and energetic going into this month’s 2024 Olympiad.
Yego believes the pre-Olympics training has helped him adapt to intricate javelin requirements in a fairly conducive environment.
“I’m fit now, just trying to push the body to the limits so that I get it right during the Olympics, because it’s right for me to push now; and how it’s going I feel really good. In a technical event like javelin, you pray that when you wake up in the morning the body is just fine. Since May, the body is really responding well to training,” the 2016 Rio Olympics silver medalist said.
Yego fondly known as the “YouTube Man” suffered an excruciating injury during the first round of the Kip Keino Classic which saw him kiss the prestigious event goodbye as Latvia’s Cakss Gatis (81.74m), Germany’s Thomas Rohler (80.62m), and Belgium’s Herman Timothy (79.94m) chalked up podium spots.
Yego candidly admits that his early injury in the session startled him to some extent as he was compelled had to halt his training to heal.
Despite this setback, Yego managed to qualify to the Paris Olympics via the world rankings after throwing 80.24m at the Africa Athletics Championships in Douala, Cameroon to rule the continent for a record fifth time.
Asked about being the lone Kenya’s Javelin thrower in Miramas’ camp, Yego expounded: “I’m used to training alone, but then again, it’s difficult to train javelin without someone; sometimes it very difficult when you are going to a gigantic completion like this. It’s difficult, of course, but there is a French Coach who is here; though there is a problem with the language, I’m trying to see how it goes, we have a translator, but its better when you have someone directly speaking to you.”
He added: “The rest will take care of itself, what God has planned for me, of course, no one can deny me. Hopefully all goes well and the results will be good. MIramas has everything for training, especially javelin, so I enjoy the place, so far so good, the place is really nice, it’s the best place to be before the Olympics.”
At the present, Yego is just focusing on the throwing techniques and feels the distance will just fall inro place.
He went on to explain: “I’m just focusing on the throwing technique. When you hit a good technique in Javelin the javelin will just fly and you will hit the right distance. Part of my throwing technique was adversely affected by my injury and at some point I lost the speed which I am working to restore.”
Yego has savored four back-to-back Olympics but had to struggle quite a bit to qualify for Paris.
He qualified for the Olympics based on rankings (19th position) with 1,210 points, which was within the Olympic quota of 32 athletes.
Yego says he is confident of throwing 82m which will guarantee him the automatic qualification to the Paris Olympic final.
“It was difficult for me; you know until the last-minute waiting to see if I will make it to the Olympics. It was the most difficult season for me, I started well, with good results in March but of course when I got injured during the Kip Keino Classic, I thought maybe it was the end of the season, luckily, I was able to pull through the injury and here I am qualified for the Olympics.”
He added, “At this point in time with my age, if I get an Olympics medal I will be so happy, of course the ultimate goal is to win it; so far so good, I have accomplished a lot and looking back home and see if we can get young boys coming up to take javelin to the next level,” Yego, the African record holder with a personal best of 92.72m, disclosed.
In 2014, he became the first Kenyan to win a Commonwealth Games gold medal in a field event.
At the 2015 World Championships he won the gold medal with a throw of 92.72m, becoming the first Kenyan to win a World Championships gold medal in a field event.
-Alex Isaboke is reporting from Paris, France-
