Former World javelin champion Julius Yego is banking on renewed momentum to claim a decisive victory at the Paavo Nurmi Games, a World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting, set for tomorrow (Tuesday) in Turku, Finland.
The 2015 world titleholder reignited his season with a commanding performance at the Motonet Grand Prix in Lahti, Finland, last Wednesday, where he launched a season-best throw of 82.95m to seal victory.
The throw marked a welcome return to form for the Kenyan javelin ace, who has endured a shaky start to his 2025 campaign.
"First European Tour and a win with a season-best throw. My rhythm is better, and I can see some improvement from the last competition," Yego shared after the Motonet GP.
Yego’s Lahti triumph came ahead of Trinidad and Tobago’s 2012 Olympic champion Keshorn Walcott, who managed 79.98m, while Finnish hopeful Taneli Juutinen settled for third with a 78.24m effort.
The 36-year-old Kenyan will now look to string together back-to-back wins in Turku as he intensifies his build-up to the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo this September. Yego’s 2025 campaign has been far from smooth.
He opened the year with a ninth-place finish at the Doha Diamond League on May 16, managing a modest 78.52m. Hopes were high for redemption on home soil at the Kip Keino Classic in Nairobi two weeks later, but he could only manage fifth with a 78.74m effort.
Brazil's Luiz Mauricio da Silva set a personal best and South American record after throwing 86.34m ahead of 2016 Olympic champion Thomas Rohler (80.79m) and Portugal's Leandro Ramos (80.68m). Yego will further be determined to banish the ghosts of recent global outings when he competes in Tokyo.
At the 2023 World Championships in Budapest, he bowed out in the qualifying round with a throw of 78.42m. The medals went to India’s Neeraj Chopra (88.17m), Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem (87.82m), and the Czech Republic’s Jakub Vadlejch (86.67m).
A year earlier in Eugene, his campaign also ended in disappointment after he managed just 79.60m in qualifying.
His most glorious moment on the global stage was in Beijing 2015 when he launched a lifetime best of 92.72m, becoming Kenya’s first and only field event world champion.
He led Egypt's Ihab Abdelrahman (88.99m) and Finland's Tero Pitkamaki (87.64m).
In Turku, Yego will face another stern test as he goes up against a stacked field including Walcott, Poland’s Marcin Krukowski and Latvia’s Gatis Cakss.
Elsewhere on the track, 2023 African 1,500m champion Brian Komen will lock horns with Norway’s rising star Narve Nordas and Ireland’s Andrew Coscoran.
Wilberforce Kones and Wesley Langat will represent Kenya in the men’s 3,000m steeplechase.
