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The 2015 world champion is looking to hit and stay into the high 80s which will get him in top shape ahead of the World Championships
Kenya’s Julius Yego, the 2015 world Javelin champion, will come up against athletes who reached the podium at last year’s World Championships during the season-opening Doha Diamond League on Friday.
Yego, who hauled a season’s best 85.70 to win bronze at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, is seeking to start his season brightly as he prepares for the World Championships in Budapest, Hungary in August in what could be his final appearance at the global event.
The 2014 Commonwealth champion registered only two throws in Birmingham, his first of 85.70m that gave him bronze and last of 82.68m, with Anderson Peters, who claimed bronze in 2018 Gold Coast Games, settling for silver in 88.64m after Pakistani Arshad Nadeem's second last throw of 90.18m had won him gold.
Yego did not have a good outing at the last World Championship in Eugene, Oregon where he managed a throw of 79.60 to exit the event in 13th place hence the need to start strongly in Doha.
He will come up against Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra, the Indian superstar who extended his national record to 89.94m last year, and was incredibly consistent in the high 80s. Chopra will be keen to join the 90m club at some point this season.
Two men who joined that club for the first time at the 2022 Doha meeting will be back in the Qatari capital on Friday. Two-time world champion Peters threw 93.07m to win in Doha last year in a thrilling competition with world and Olympic medallist Jakub Vadlejch, who set a personal best of 90.88m.
Trinidad and Tobago’s 2012 Olympic champion Keshorn Walcott, another 90m performer, is also in the line-up, as are Germany’s European champion Julian Weber and Finland’s Oliver Helander.
The four-time African champion will be hoping to get into the high 80s that he managed between 2016 and 2019 as he pushes for the 90m mark which will get him into medal contention at the Worlds.
Yego last reached the 90s mark in 2015 when he hit 92.72m, an African record, to win gold at the World Championships in Beijing, China and even though the 34-year-old is up against younger athletes, his experience should put him in good stead.
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